Code: Ascension
by Zoey Overbeck
Summary: It's a full out battle between Team Lyoko and Team XANA now. With both sides harboring great animosity to the other, giant guns, and combatants ready to fight, it's life-or-death for both sides. Could there be a spy involved? Rated T for language used.
1. Introduction

**The actual story is on the next chapter, please go there if you wish not to read all this technical information.** I know it's probably a violation of the site's rules, and I am very guilty about this, since it's like one giant Author's Note.

This arc of the series is dedicated to both friends lost and friends found. "Blood Covenant" is being written, but probably will never be published.

If you have requested me to beta-read/edit/revise your stories, please read the beta-reader profile I put up several months ago (link on the top of my profile page here). It's foolish to think I'm going to read everything people throw at me (Especially Lemons, Limes, Yaoi, and Yuri- my least favorite things here).

This fanfiction has been bumped down from M to T, for the time. Rating will fluctuate based on the language used, if I decide to make it more realistic and add more swearing to the story.

Warning: **Strong Language/Swearing** is heavily used throughout the book. I will not take responsibility. In War, Soldiers are experts at finding ways to curse (See: American Soldier slang during WWII). No Adult scenes, obviously. Yes, I've read the ratings thing for this site.

I find disclaimers to be entirely useless, so as a result, there will be no disclaimers here. This site has _Fan_fiction all over it-that means the authors that write here are obviously not the owners of the show.

The Ascension universe was created by Commando Wolf, with the assistance of Flyboy961, LyokoWarrior17, and PitchShifter6 (formerly TheSovietWarMachine, currently PollutionPandemic). All rights reserved, all writers anonymous and with pen names must ask for permission before basing a story on the Ascension universe, with the exception of the three other authors mentioned above.

* * *

**Ascension:**The act of ascending. In this universe, however, Ascension takes on this meaning in both ways- the Ascension of Aelita and the ascension of the 45th Regiment in its struggle to survive.

Not much is known about Ascension, however, being that Aelita is one of the few human beings that were able to be Ascended to a higher plane after death. Some theories say that the person has to sacrifice his or herself [in a special circumstance] with cause and without regard to his or her well being.

Even though Aelita has the power to evolve into her Ascended form, she is inexperienced with activating it, only being able to in high-stress situations. Staying in Ascended form can quickly tire Aelita out (the longest time Aelita had stayed in that form was two days straight before having to revert to her normal human form). Aelita still has some ties to XANA, being hyper-sensitive to his presence (including that of Polymorphic Specters, and normal specters he uses to possess people) in her Ascended form. XANA can exert his influence to her mind and attempt to persuade her to do his bidding- though he is painfully rejected by Aelita's will and her body's immunity to most of him.

The following is an observation made by Marine scientists upon studying her (on Aelita's arrival to the Marines). She has undergone further testing after the Marines witnessed her using her powers to defend them from an attacking onslaught of Aquatic Dragons. In the parenthesis where a listing of her powers are, it is the term she calls them- the name of her powers assigned by the Marines to officiate them.

**Aelita (Resurrected): **Technically having been resurrected from death by an unknown force, she now holds powers reserved for those that had shed their mortal bodies and have pure souls. However, since she is dedicated to avenging the human race, most of her powers (along with her true form that allows her to use them) are unlocked only during high-stress events, or occurrences that send her into a blind rage against evil. In her true form, Aelita is taller by only 3 inches, wings are slightly enlarged for faster flying, her hair turns to a whitish coloring, her eye color is replaced by a darker shade of blue, other physical appearances change, and her stats are improved significantly. Upon change to her true form, her health and energy points are re-filled to the maximum number of points allowable for her form (3,000 energy points, 1,000 health points). Aelita's favorite weapon is the sword of the living/blade of the dead, which she calls to her side only if she feels that there is no other way out- in the hands of the enemy, the blade is a powerful weapon which draws its energy from its bearer (being that its power is only matched by its wielder). Therefore, if XANA manages to possesses the Ascended Aelita, he could use her to commit serious amounts of damage.

**Health: **100 (1,000 when in her true form). 100 is the default standard, being the average endurance of a normal, healthy human. This is the only stat unchanged by her resurrection in her normal form. The amount of health Aelita regains per day is dependent on the environment around her.**  
Attack: **1.45x normal human capabilities (up to 3x in Ascended form) **  
Defense: **1.8x normal human capabilities (up to 3x in Ascended form) **  
Speed: **1.57x normal human capabilities (up to3x in Ascended form) **  
Energy: **100 (normal form), 3,000 (Ascended form). Aelita regains up to 100 energy per day normally, up to 200-300 in high-stress situations. It was difficult to measure the exact amount

**Powers:** Along with the standard shield power that protects a specified person or area until a certain degree of damage has been inflicted on it, Aelita has gained the powers of Flight, Condemnation, Fury of the Moon, Night of a Thousand Blades, Judgment, and Final Toll. Aelita will be unable to perform most of her powers if there isn't sufficient health or energy (or both, for the matter). Upon having her health or energy points reduced to 0, Aelita returns to her normal form, unconscious, depending on how bad the damage she had energy she regains per day.

**Shield: **A basic pink-colored energy shield which can be projected to protect herself as well as one or two people. It shatters upon taking damage equal to that of its summoner's current health before shattering into fragments and disappearing into wisps of air. Cost: 0 energy points, 0 health.**  
Flight: **One of her most basic powers, her large wings allows her to fly with the maximum capacity of two passengers, due to constraints on the power of her wings. In her Ascended form, she can fly up to thirty to fifty miles per hour faster, depending on if she has any passengers or not. Cost: 0 energy points, 0 Health**  
Condemnation: **This is one of her more powerful attacks. Condemnation allows her to instantly inflict damage equal to that of being hit by China's Bullet Train. This move can take several hours to recharge before Aelita has enough energy to use it again. Cost: 650 energy points, 300 Health**  
Fury of the Moon (Crescent Strike): **Being that this move costs little energy, Aelita often uses it to punish those that have crossed her once in her true form. Aelita summons a crescent moon shaped object that is hurled at, causing damage relative to being lobbed with a brick each time her weapon successfully hits her victim (It's similar to a boomerang). Being that its damage is effective against most monsters, Aelita hardly uses her other powers. Cost upon initial summon: 5 energy points, 0 Health**  
Night of a Thousand Blades (Dagger Storm): **Visibility is instantly reduced to near-zero during the duration of the attack, and Aelita attacks by summoning numerous daggers to rain down onto the unsuspecting victim(s). Cost: 100 energy points, 20 Health per occurrence. This move does not need to be recharged before and after use.**  
Judgment (Damnation): **With the force of a nuclear blast, this power can instantly eradicate a person or a specified place within milliseconds. However, since this one of the most labor intensive moves and reduces Aelita's health and energy to almost nothing, this move was only used once to save a large city from XANA's destruction. This move can take about 2-3 weeks to recharge. Cost: 2,850 energy points, 800 Health  
**Ghostly Wail: **It's basically Aelita's creativity, only on a darker edge. Instead creating or simply deleting small areas of land, the Ghostly Wail is for mass collateral destruction. Aelita screeches loudly, and the sonic waves rippling outward damage and/or completely obliterate the surroundings around her. This move will vaporize everything within .25 miles in front of her. Although there isn't any recharging time needed before Aelita is able to use the move again, there is a heavy drain on her energy reserves in proportion to the power (equations are on the "Skin On Our Teeth" chapter).

* * *

**45****th ****Regiment:** Protected by the shields created by the Guardians, the 45th regiment is a jumble of officers and soldiers dumped near the French Alps. Using the Mountain Cabin as their Base of Operations, they utilize their surroundings to protect them from attacks. The 45th Regiment is one of the last remaining French resistance forces within France, due to XANA's nuclear attack that caused France to fall on its knees in a matter of days.

**Group Headquarters: **This building houses important documents concerning the war effort. Only higher ranking officials with special permission is allowed to work here, since they have to handle information sensitive documents that are usually kept hidden from the soldiers. There is a briefing room within this building. This was developed from the remains of the Mountain Cabin, where Waldo and Antea Schaeffer used to reside.

**Technological Building: **The functioning heart of the 45th Regiment, the Technological Building usually is kept open all day and night, where workers continually develop technology in 8-hour shifts. The home base of the Carthaginians, their main concern is keeping their limited technologies up to date in hopes of staving off XANA longer.

**Mercy Hospital: **This building is often limited to the critically injured soldiers, though they will house soldiers with lesser extents of injuries if they have space left available. Mercy Hospital was named so that it would serve as a beacon of hope to all soldiers both in combat and in recovery. However, like most named things, Mercy Hospital has a double entente- a lethal entente.

**Mess Hall:** Spacious, this gathering area is often used when officers need to make public announcements to the soldiers. This building is otherwise avoided on days where particular foods are served. It is made up mostly of wood and scrap-aluminum sheeting, and has a small weapons storage in the back, where some of the various knives are stored when not in use. It is connected with all buildings except Mercy Hospital, the Technological building, and Group Headquarters. **  
**

* * *

**Mini-Bios of Some Characters Introduced in Code: Ascension:**

**Blizzard**- Blizzard's actual name is not known, for he prefers to keep a level of anonymity. He is often assigned to act as an informant for the 45th Regiment, continually reporting to Commander Anthrax whenever he has a chance to make a safe communication with the latter. Blizzard is never seen by the soldiers nor the officers. Some suspect him of being a rogue Polymorphic Specter that disobeyed XANA's rules and communicated to the resistance forces about the plans XANA was going to initiate against the remaining humans.  
Ht: Unknown  
Eye Color: Unknown  
Hair Color: Unknown, estimated to be dark brown  
Age: Estimated to be around 35-39  
Catchphrase: Unknown**  
**

**Captain "Boomer" Bill/Beriothien ****Nénharma****- **Shy and reserved, Captain Bill keeps to himself, preferring the company of machines. He is an engineer and a member of the Carthaginians, once belonging to the "Warrior Raptors" group. He is an expert in creating and detonating explosives and is a pilot in Sky Team Alliance in the "Death from Above" sector. Captain Bill hates commas above all things, with an exception for XANA.  
Ht: 5' 8"  
Eye Color: Brown  
Hair Color: Light Brown  
Age: 25  
Catchphrase: "That's crazy... You know I was crazy once and they locked me in a room with bugs... Bugs, bugs make me crazy. Crazy, I was crazy once; they locked me in a room with bugs. Bugs, bugs make me crazy..."

**Colonel John Sheppard- **With the heart of a lion and a strong will to carry on despite the enormous disadvantages and defend his country, Colonel John Sheppard deeply cares for people. Though he dislikes killing people, he will, if he has to (traitors in particular). His least favorite thing is XANA, and he is most experienced in the G36, having an extensive knowledge of weaponry.  
Ht: 6' 5"  
Eye Color: Green  
Hair Color: Light Brown  
Age: 28  
Catchphrase: "Great, not again!"

**Commander Matthew Raymond Anthrax- **Commander Anthrax is one of the leading members of the Carthaginians. He is described as a tall and well built officer, and is hardly seen outside of the Technology building, Group Headquarters building, or the briefing room. He does not tolerate nonsense in his presence and relies on Blizzard to continually feed him information regarding XANA's next move. He always keeps an iconic Staples button with him, having a mild obsession to press the button when he gets his work done. Commander Anthrax leads Group Headquarters, but often lets his subordinates have a chance to vote on issues that are too stressful for him to decide on his own.  
Ht: 5' 11"  
Eye Color: Black  
Hair Color: Black  
Age: 35  
Catchphrase: "That _was _easy!"

**Commander Michelle Aerandir Fell- **Bored with the war and looking for any source of amusement, bombing targets and making their world go up in flames seems like a good idea after a while. She is infamous for going AWOL twice, stealing Towser's knife, and seeing everybody as a threat. A pilot in Sky Hawks, she hates a lot of things- the opposite gender topping the list.  
Ht: 5' 6"  
Eye Color: Dark Brown/Black  
Hair Color: Dark Brown/Black  
Age: 27  
Catchphrase: "…This is all SNAFU! It's FUBAR!"

**Corporal Joseph Winters- **His original name is hidden from almost everyone, so hardly anyone really knows what it is. As one of the members of the Ice Daggers, Cpl. Winters is skilled in weapons and combat. With a mischievous sense of humor, Cpl. Winters often plays pranks on members in the 45th regiment, especially on Dr. Neilson. His catchphrase has earned him the nickname "Barrel boy" by Commander Fell, his older sibling. Although not very experienced with fighting in actual battles, Joseph tends to be able to quickly identify weapons due to excessive amounts of playing realistic shooting games.  
Ht: 5' 5"  
Eye Color: Black  
Hair Color: Dark Brown/Black  
Age: 21  
Catchphrase: "Do a barrel roll!"

**Doctor Francis Robin Neilson- **As the Head of the Medical division in the 45th Regiment, he decides what needs to be done within his department, though some of his choices are often poor ones. He is ego-centric and often demands to be the one making the decisions. Being shorter than his colleagues, he often reverts to his Napoleonic behavior when someone refers to his height. He is not well liked in the Hospital due to his temper and his frequent snaps at his coworkers. His least favorite thing in the world is cats.  
Ht: 4' 8"s  
Eye Color: Green/Blue  
Hair Color: Brown  
Age: 36  
Catchphrase: "I'm not short! I'm travel/fun sized!"**  
**

**First Lieutenant Charlie Stevenson-**Easygoing and seemingly unruffled about anything, Charlie is usually deployed from time to time to ensure the morale of the soldiers. He maintains his streak at the Skeet shooting range due to his accuracy. He is a sniper for the Raging Phoenixes that was accidentally transferred to the 45th Regiment. He maintains a good friendship with Corporal Winters, and sometimes can be seen with him performing random acts of mischief around the base camp. He maintains his position in Group Headquarters and is hardly seen outside of the building.  
Ht: 5' 3"  
Eye Color: Dark Blue  
Hair Color: Blond/Light Brown  
Age: 34  
Catchphrase: "… like when my friend, Joseph…"**  
**

**General Ziggy- **Not much is known about General Ziggy. He is more commonly known as a battle strategist that attempts to assess every possible attack strategy possible. Cautious of the situation at hand, he often waits to see if the battlefield is tipped in his favor before he will go into battle. He currently holds a battle winning streak due to his cautious behavior in choosing his battles.  
Ht: 5' 6"  
Eye Color: Brown  
Hair Color: Blond  
Age: 28  
Catchphrase: "FOOD!"

**General [of the Army] Nicholas McDonnell Edwards- **His gloomy outlook on life and his constant moaning [of how he has to keep making big sacrifices for the benefit of everyone besides him] makes him not well-liked. He often hides within his cubicle and is rarely seen leaving it, with the exception of getting food, leaving to his quarters for showering/change clothing, or using the facilities. He resents the fact that he has to stay within the 45th regiment to babysit Sergeant Towser and constantly grumbles about it. His favorite activity is punching First Lieutenant Charlie Stevenson in the face whenever the latter beats him in ping pong.  
Ht: 6' 8"  
Eye Color: Black  
Hair Color: Brown  
Age: 39  
Catchphrase: "What the hell?"

**Second Lieutenant Melissa Erickson- **Commander Michelle's copilot and old friend from 'way back when', Melissa is a hot-tempered fighter pilot that uses her anger to fuel her strengths. Although a quiet person, she has many quirks that define her- one of them being her innovative ideas when it comes to survival.  
Ht: 5' 7"  
Eye Color: Light Brown  
Hair Color: Blond  
Age: 29  
Catchphrase: "Well, we're screwed."

**Sergeant Mark Towser- **Sergeant Towser is usually bad-tempered, foul-mouthed and alone for most of the time, though he will attempt to associate with other soldiers from time to time. He had his knife stolen by Commander Fell when he wasn't looking. A toughened survivor of the war on terror fought by the United States, he often is unemotional to the needs of the newer soldiers. He is rarely involved in other activities outside of his own duties.  
Ht: 5' 10"  
Eye Color: Black  
Hair Color: Brown  
Age: 45  
Catchphrase: "Get your ass here on the double!"

* * *

**List of the Names of "Sectors" within the 45th**** regiment:**

**Desert Eagles- **Mysterious and seemingly never in the camp, the Desert Eagles prefer to camp out in the more sandy parts of the battlefield, using the natural landscape as camouflage. Their attack method is usually to obscure the targets' vision with sand, and then strike quickly. Speed is their game, and they will usually use their agility toward their advantage. This group's armor has not been identified. As they are skilled with desert fighting, they currently hold large areas of free land within the Middle East and some parts of Africa.**  
**

**Warrior Raptors- **From the Mountainous regions of the world comes the Warrior Raptors, trained for endurance and strength, though not for speed. Warrior Raptors are able to tolerate higher regions and are a close-knit squad due to the teamwork that has to take place during their rigorous training of mountain climbing. Heavy armor and weapons makes them the slowest of all teams, but makes up for that as the most prominent and powerful force. This ground holds several key locations located in mountainous areas, such as the base for the Sky Hawks.

**Sky Team- **The Sky Team is a worldwide organization of squadron pilots belonging to their respective groups, with 50 members to a group, 60 in larger base camps. Sky Hawks and Death From Above are examples of the smaller groups of fighters. Although it is widely known and recognized as the one of the more superior fighting air force, many of its numbers have been decimated from overuse of their pilots on missions. Currently, the Sky Team bases itself in the Black Mountains, watching the squadrons and assisting in the coordination of missions. Their highly sophisticated technological advancements have made it difficult for enemy forces to locate their position. Even so, the group keeps an impressive ammo cache just in case of a security breach. Their current base is also protected by several shield layers- the last base they had was utterly decimated by a nuclear attack.

***Sky Hawks- **Also called the "Raptors of Death"; this is one of the better known air-force fighting squad. This group uses mostly offensive tactics, letting the Death From Above Squadron balance them by having them utilize defensive strategies. Most of the Fighter Jets in this group are fighter planes built for their speed (Superiority Fighters). As the primary attackers, they do not use any other form of attack besides the frontal assault. Though they are excellent in fighting, the lack the skills needed to communicate with each other to a higher degree, unlike the pilots from Death From Above, choosing instead to send multiple coded messages instead of stating exactly what the problem is.

***Death From Above- **This team is usually paired up with the Sky Hawks since they are closer and they cooperate with each other on a higher degree. This skilled group uses its defensive tactics to assist Sky Hawks. The fighter planes contained within this group is mostly fighter-bombers. Though they are skilled in taking down larger targets such as fuel lines and XANA's monster mass production lines, they lack the skills needed for accurately disabling XANA temporarily.

**Death From Below- **Refers to the Marines working and picking off targets within the Submarines and the few remaining vessels in the Navel Force. Ulrich Stern, an Admiral in a group designed for the perseverance of this naval force, commands the majority of these units from his battleship ("Storm"). Though this group specializes in destroying targets from below the water (hence its name), the majority of it has been picked off by Aquatic Dragons, who they 'lovingly' call the "Bastards of the Deep" because of its ability to mess with their sonar systems and their special coating which refracts light.

**Death From Within- **Refers to the Mess Hall Cooks that accidentally poison the soldiers from time to time by adding several ingredients in their flavor experimentation. Severe cramps, emesis, and gastric problems occur afterward an episode of poisoning. As food supplies get scarcer and scarcer, food poisoning happens more frequently. The total number of casualties resulting from this food poisoning vary from meal to meal. The soldiers and officers who actually had eaten a lot of the food developed some form of immunity to it, being able to tolerate both the food and its odor for an average of one hour.**  
**

**Raging Phoenixes- **Hailing from the more volcanic regions of the world, this small and hardy group prides itself on its ability to withstand the heat of battle even when the scenario appears disastrously out of its favor. This group utilizes brute force as a means of plowing through the seemingly endless stream of enemies. In terms of their armor and weaponry, they prefer lighter objects, reducing their defense, but increasing their speed. Their weapons were specifically made for quick strikes, but their secondary weapons often assist them if the battle draws longer than it was intended to be. Due to the general danger of volcanic areas, they do not hold many territories within their sector.

**Ice Daggers- **Coming from the Arctic Tundra and the Northern Parts of the World, the Ice Daggers are well known for their expertise in Guerrilla warfare. This group often plans for months before executing the plan. Though good strategists, their failure to follow up after their plans is often a large handicap for their group. This group is known for its defensive strategies and offensive abilities. Their heavy armor outfitted for subarctic exercises boosts their defense, but cuts their speed, making them a slow, but reliable force to be reconed with.

**Savages- **Their ability to blend seamlessly into the forest was stunning. Now, they stand out since there is hardly any forest. This group was split up and sent to other groups. Now, Savages refers to the new recruits in a camp due to their mostly untrained behavior. With training, they can use special attack and special defense moves to protect other members of their group. This group utilizes different tactics per company [of Savages], making it hard to assemble them in a pinch. Most of the group utilizes defensive abilities, using their energy shields to deflect laser beams shot at them back at their attackers. Their armor is almost as thin as the Raging Phoenixes' armor, though it is meant for disguise rather than protection. Dragon Skin and Kevlar body armor is available to them for extra protection.

**Carthaginians- **This spot is reserved for the most skilled in technology. Carthaginians are responsible for mapping out the surrounding area, making important decisions on where to strike, developing software to combat XANA's virus from infecting and taking control of their electronics, and creating and distributing new defenses and weapons. Numerous ranks are within this group, Guardians being top dogs. This group does not have any special abilities. This group does not have any armor, but they have defensive systems built into their wristbands to create energy shields at whim.

* * *

**List of Monsters Introduced in the Ascension Universe:**

**Dragons:** There are two model types of Dragons- Aerial and Aquatic. Each has its own different weaknesses and strengths.

***Aerial Dragons:** Aerial Dragons are more resilient to weapon fire unlike its aquatic counterpart. Its thick armor makes it tough to destroy, being capable of taking a remarkable amount of punishment before disintegrating into shards of metal. Earlier versions of this model had only two engines to propel this several-ton monster through the air. However, XANA modified it in order for it to go through the air faster and harder to disable it. This model of the dragon is a long, serpentine body made up of six jointed segments, having Acid-Green metal, six wings, each with engines mounted on it. This dragon has three energy canons- the main one located in its mouth and the other two mounted on the first of the wings. However, using these cannons drains more of its fuel than normal, and it often resorts to wrapping its body around jets to crush it in a suicide move.  
**Threat Level: **Immediate Danger, High Risk**  
Health: **2,000 **  
Armor Rating: **94/100**  
Armor Piercing: **75/100**  
Weakness: **Water, Fire**  
Invincible to: **Electricity (having small wicks on its body that allows the discharge of electricity away from it, similar to that of a commercial airplane)

***Aquatic Dragons: **This version of the Dragon has less armor and doesn't have any wings, unlike its Aerial counterpart, instead having small fins located on its body. Instead of having energy cannons, it has a torpedo launcher in its mouth, capable of storing mass amounts of torpedoes. Systematic and immediate reloading makes it a formidable foe; it was said that one Aquatic Dragon could easily take down three aircraft carriers before running out of ammunition and resorting to ramming against the ships. It is unable to be hydrodynamic, however due to the amount of fins located on its body. It is coated with special light-refracting shielding that makes it difficult to see without using technology.  
**Threat Level: **Medium-High Risk**  
Health Rating: **1,500**  
Armor Rating: **70/100**  
Armor Piercing: **60/100**  
Weakness: **Superior firepower, multiple targets firing at it.**  
Invincible to: ** None

**Assassins: **Similar to Hunters, they perform the same action as their "cousin", though they have tougher armor, and are able to rip a jet to shreds within a few minutes on its own. Its small size makes it hard to accurately nail them with machine gun fire. Their upgraded armor makes them invulnerable to the small electric shocks that normally are able to paralyze/destroy a Hunter.  
**Threat Level: **Medium Risk**  
Health Rating: **40/100**  
Armor Rating: **50/100**  
Armor Piercing: **30/100**  
Weakness: **Electricity, Water, Fire**  
Invincible to: **None

**Biowolves: **XANA's later experimentation of humans that have been captured later in the war- an alternative to the process used to convert humans into Wirewolves. They have the appearance of the stereotypical werewolf, being covered in fur and having large muscles. Metal armor covering them provides them better defenses against the weapons used by the warring humans, making it difficult to discern between its distant cousin, the Wirewolf.  
**Threat Level: **High Risk**  
Health Rating:** 90/100**  
Armor Rating: **70/100**  
Armor Piercing: **50/100**  
Weakness: **Fire, Electricity**  
Invincible to: ** None

**Hunters:** Hunters are easily the smallest and most easily destroyable monster introduced to the Lyoko Warriors, having armor equal to that of a normal Kankrelat- that being because XANA wanted to focus on its mass production instead of each individual monster on its own. The Hunter is less than two feet high, and uses its claws to embed itself to the jets' metal armoring. The Hunters will then rip the plane open and tear at the wiring inside. Although having one Hunter on a plane isn't fatal, they will gang up to take down a plane. Fighter-bombers can take up to 6 Hunters, while Superiority Fighters only are able to deal with 3 Hunters. Being that Hunters hardly have any armor, however, a quick, low volt shock to its systems can easily disable it. All types of Fighter jets are now equipped with this feature to make Hunters disabled permanently.  
**Threat Level: **Low-Medium Risk**  
Health Rating: **5/100**  
Armor Rating: **5/100**  
Armor Piercing: **50/100**  
Weakness: **Electricity, Water**  
Invincible to: **None**  
**

**Unknown: **This was XANA's first experimentation with biological monsters. Though there is sparse information covering all the types of this monster (hence the group name), researchers have been able to study the three common types of this monster. All of them have tough skin that makes it hard to kill them. They are not the most intelligent of the monsters, sometimes attacking their allies- the XANAtics and the XANAfied humans, as well as other monsters. On rare occasions, they will fight with each other.  
**  
*Carriers: **Carriers are the parental monsters of the Unknown, often found with a swelling sack on their backs that contains the developing forms of swarmers- mites. They are estimated to be at least 20 feet tall, towering over the other monster types. They travel on four broad legs similar to that of a spider. It is easy to detect them due to the slime trails (from the light yellow birthing sac) it leaves while traveling. When it dies, the sac explodes, drenching the surrounding area in light green slime that can impair vision and make it easier for other monsters to kill the humans. It gives 'birth' by sending the mites out in a large glob of green slime, often being able to throw them at long distances, up to 350 feet. Their weak point is the sac- it also holds many of its vital organs.**  
****Threat Level: **Medium Risk******  
Health Rating: **50/100******  
Armor Rating: **50/100******  
Armor Piercing: **60/100******  
Weakness: **Fire

*Chargers:

Although not as large as the Carriers, they are one of the most deadly of this monster type. They often rush at humans disarmed by the other monsters of its type. Due to its massive girth, it is very rare to see one- it has difficulty fitting into spaces that are smaller than 12 feet in height and 9 feet in length, often trying to smash the obstruction with its massive claws. It can also utilize its claws to protect itself from frontal attacks.  
**Threat Level: **High Risk**  
****Health Rating: **60/100******  
Armor Rating: **80/100******  
Armor Piercing: **30/100******  
Weakness:** Fire

*Swarmers:

Like its name implies, this monster is often found in groups. Mites, their weaker form, are similar to them in stature, except in a smaller size. This monster travels on small feet obscured by its massive four-pronged hooked mandibles it uses to tear its opponents to pieces. Its tail, growing up to three feet long, are used to stave off attackers from behind. Because it has no eyes, it relies on sound to locate its prey.  
**Threat Level: **Medium Risk**  
Health Rating: **40/100**  
Armor Rating: **30/100**  
Armor Piercing: **40/100**  
Weakness: **Fire**  
Invincible to: **None  
**  
Wirewolves: **These creatures are the result of experimentation performed on humans captured and tortured at the beginning of the war. They were brainwashed to serve XANA loyally. Of the several hundred thousand humans that had been captured, only approximately 10 thousand humans survived. Those that did survive the torture, starvation, and diseases running rampant from the lack of sterility were turned into Wirewolves- fearsome half-human, half-metal creature. The surviving humans were integrated with technology to increase their deadliness- this process taking the lives of several thousand more humans. Although the wirewolves' attacks do not seem deadly to the casual observer, its paws sheathe four to five inch claws with hooks at the end- perfect for disemboweling. It's razor sharp teeth are something to be feared of too. The Wirewolves are protected by thick armor that are able to take the heat of battle (to compensate for the lack of their numbers), being able to survive being hit by a grenade and still be able to keep going. Due to its deadliness, the Wirewolf has been one of the most deadly monsters, and much information has yet to be discovered on this monster.  
**Threat Level: **High Risk**  
Health Rating: **80/100**  
Armor Rating: **85/100**  
Armor Piercing: **60/100**  
Weakness: **Water**  
Invincible to: **None

* * *

AN: Heh, there was an almost subtle reference to Star Fox ("Do a barrel roll!")…it was almost too good to pass up! "Bow down before your God!"- Colonel Sheppard's previous catchphrase is a Stargate reference to Anubis.

PitchShifter6 and LyokoWarrior17: If you find your OCs description to be unsuitable, please PM me.


	2. Prologue

AN: "…And I grimly smiled at the words he wrote, as my eyes scanned his story, thankful-thankful that he had never heard the sound of breaking glass, nor see the blood being spilled, thankful he would never know what had happened, or what took place after. …and he would hate my memory in peace. I was already gone from the world. Life meant nothing. The cabinet's accidentally broken glass represented a broken promise- a promise broken by accident." ~ Blood Covenant, Prologue.

Disregard title "Blood Covenant". I found out that it's supposed to mean marriage, instead of a close friendship forged by blood.

* * *

**Code: Ascension- Dead Men Walking- Prologue**

**December 2**

**Day**: The day after yesterday**  
Time**: Approximately 20:05  
**Length I've been in the military**: Too long

To the person that will probably come across this journal in the future:

I have not thought of keeping a journal until a few weeks ago, where I figured that if the war is going to make some sort of history if the humans won, then there might be as well one accurate depiction of it.

It has been months since the disaster. I have recovered since then, but the wounds are still present. I often wonder how Aelita is doing, now that she's dead and all. …I wonder what the afterlife is like. …I guess I'll find out sooner than I think. Charlie says that somebody's coming to the camp today to train the forest sector- aka the "newbies", or "greens". He says that he or she has a very short fuse, and Sergeant Towser had the misfortune of setting off his or her temper. I said that I was glad that I didn't have to deal with it. Charlie laughed and said that I would have to deal with him or her anyway, since he or she's going to be staying in our camp for a long time.

…My apologies. You probably have no idea about the people I am talking about. First Lieutenant Charlie Stevenson, or Charlie for short, was one of the first people I befriended in this army. Sergeant Towser is the resident martinet- he seems to like yelling at people a lot. Are you still going to ask about Aelita? Well, I don't really want to talk about her, or the disaster. It would be too… I can't find the words to express the loss I feel. I suppose she would have told me to carry on, but the truth is that I simply can't let go. I just have this feeling that she isn't completely gone from the world, as if the connection Aelita and I forged early in our lives still remains alive, despite what had happened.

I have two wonderful kids named Waldo and Antea, which I let Aelita name them after her parents. Antea… she looks strikingly like Aelita, except that she has my eyes… I guess the reason I'm thinking about Aelita a lot nowadays is that Antea's birthday is coming up in about two weeks. I still do not know what to gift her- there isn't many things one can give to his children during wartime, since we're supposed to conserve and save up the remaining resources available in the world.

The sky has been red for a long time, with black clouds dominating the sky… It seems as if the sun will never break through the gloom and shine upon us. Sergeant Towser says that it's red because it foretells the ultimate victory of his plan. The plan is stupid. It seems like a great way how to kill people for the simple title of being courageous, or something along the lines like that. Charlie joked that the sky's red color reflects the blood Sergeant Towser's spilled since the start of this war due to his half-baked schemes.

My conversation with Sergeant Towser went a little like this-

"This plan is the plan to end all plans!"  
"How many times did you say that already?"  
"Silence, Belpois! In the interest in time…"  
"Time's not interested."  
"I think you just lost your last neuron, Belpois…"  
"Who says you had any in the first place?"

End conversation.

I ended up having to clean the latrines so well that "we could eat off of them".

"I don't think people are going to eat off of them, I think they're going to pee in them." ~Waldo, 9 years of age, when I told him about the incident with Sergeant Towser.

I took the brush and did minimal work- that's about as clean as it would get.

Since Mid-July last year, XANA had begun its ultimate plan in exterminating the human race. Slowly but surely, electronic items were taken over as his control expanded. Little inconsistencies sometimes happened, but nothing major really happened until he began his offensive in August. That's when things really went to hell in a hand basket. Please excuse my language, whoever is reading this in the future- the military is, unfortunately, a place to pick up on ways of using expletives. Agent Simmons, one of the higher ranking officials within the administration that dealt with the national security of France, approached us and led us to a government building where we tried to anticipate what XANA would try to do. We agreed and went with him into the administration he worked at in order to formulate a defense strategy. We had exhausted nearly all our resources trying to stave off the inevitable. In short- our efforts only saved a few million people instead of the several billions people we hoped to save.

Planes began falling out of the sky as XANA scrambled their feed of programmed directives… security systems failed as XANA's virus activated- instantly rewriting their codes and changing their original directives. XANA began using fighter planes as his aerial striking fleet- bombing everything that he considered to be helpful to the remaining humans within his sight. Nuclear Bombs were launched worldwide, wiping out the majority of the human race from the blasts, as well as devastating a vast amount of the world's vegetation due to the the radiation released upon the blast. The humans' systems they had created to defend them had turned against them- they were utterly defenseless and helpless, wandering around until they banded together to form a squad dedicated towards the resistance of XANA's rule.

This Regiment was created by some of those aforementioned wandering humans- a group of humans that each were specialized in a job sector beneficial to the well being of the other members of the group. As a defensive group at the time, we had created a group within our Regiment called the Carthaginians, and I am their leader. The group's purpose is to continue to develop technology with enough safeguards to deter XANA from taking over the systems- a tough job, considering the limited amount of technology left untainted by XANA's viruses. If he found a way to break through the barrier protecting our tails from the worst of XANA's attacks, we'd all be dead within nanoseconds.

Only a few countries remain free at this moment- America, China, Russia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, India, and a few other scattered nations around the world, remote and unwilling to communicate with us for fear of having their location being revealed to XANA. I don't blame them- France was easily conquered due to XANA having easier access to the military's weapons there. Perhaps it is a useless gesture- one the first mechanical objects that XANA had taken over were extremely powerful GPS satellites that the humans had created in order to help them navigate their way in the world. XANA could easily spot defenseless humans and send out the appropriate number of his monsters in order to wipe them out.

The Regiment I'm in… it's one of the last resistance forces in France- most of the population in this country was wiped out from nuclear weapons. We have retreated to the mountains- the French Alps to be precise. I can't disclose much, I am afraid that XANA's more advanced minions will read what I just wrote. XANA seems to have been busy creating new monsters since this month started- even making those that are able to hear and read all types of languages that humans used throughout history. However, he has not been able to completely figure out our codes, since we constantly switch them to keep XANA from intercepting them and prevent the rebellious forces from sabotaging his efforts to win the war.

Somewhere in the world, however, there are other forces that are assisting XANA. Those are the humans that had willingly chosen to help XANA exterminate the rest of their fellow humans. There are two sides to every coin- those humans had crawled over to XANA and joined in, in hopes that he would spare their lives if they had surrendered to him. What makes it more difficult for us is that XANA has possessed some of the survivors of his nuclear raids, mainly people that he found would be beneficial to us. That being said, it takes a long amount of time for our plans to take place- XANA used their knowledge to counter our attempts to free the world from his grasp, and we can't exactly go around killing humans without any sense of morality.

… I'm running out of room. I'll find another scrap of paper to write on- probably borrowing another few sheets from Charlie's old notebook he doesn't use anymore. Also, I think I'm forgetting how to write as well as I should.

Jeremie Belpois, Private First Class, head of the Carthaginians.

* * *

The actual first chapter for this story is being revised. I didn't like introducing all of the characters mentioned in the Introduction in one chapter.


	3. Camaraderie

AN: For this arc, I will be trying a slightly modified style of writing, so the descriptions and dialogue will vary a bit in writing style. Bear with me as I try to find a style that fits how I want to say things.

Please excuse the language- from this point, dialogue will become a lot cruder [in a nod to blending a bit of military reality in with this story]. No responsibility will be taken by the author- fair warning has been issued.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 1- Camaraderie  
December 2**

Jeremie lightly chewed the tip of his pen as he wrote the last words of his journal entry. Closing the dark red-colored cover of the notebook, he hurriedly shoved it under the sleeping bag that served as his bed, hoping that somebody wouldn't look for it. The scent of alcohol still lingered prominently in the air, and Jeremie wrinkled his nose in response, unhappy that that odor had been hanging around his tent for at least 2 hours. Antea had left his tent in search for fresh air quite a while ago, taking her brother along for a bit of exploration around the camp. Someone coughed, and Jeremie whirled around in his tent, sighing in relief when he saw that it was only First Lieutenant Charlie, who was carrying a canteen full of homemade whiskey and slightly slurring his words.

"Belpois, why are you wasting your time writing? You should be shooting off targets in the training field. You know the officer is coming today and Sarge will be pissed off if we don't do our best to impress him." Charlie gave a hearty laugh and lightly smacked Jeremie's shoulder.  
"It's a guy?" Jeremie raised his eyebrows in suspicion.  
"I reckon." Charlie chuckled. "… or that's what Sarge guessed. He or she didn't seem too happy when he or she was talking with Sarge on the phone… he even got him sweating rivers! I actually saw Sarge start cracking under pressure! I had to hightail it out of there before he caught me, though. Sarge would have thrown a fit."  
"You're drinking again, aren't you? Doctor Nielson said no more drinking."  
"No… I… is… I are… I'm not." Charlie then let out a particularly loud burp, and Jeremie frowned slightly in revulsion to his act.  
"I smelled your homemade whiskey here, even when it was a half mile away. Try to cut down on your alcohol intake. I know people that had died due to liver problems from drinking."  
"You worry too much… Try to loosen up a little, Jeremie" Charlie took a swig from his canteen and left, still laughing as he sauntered away.

Jeremie picked up his rifle and sighed uncaringly, walking towards the targeting range- an endless ocean of ragged terrain and scorched Earth, where Blocks and Tarantulas normally prowled outside of the force field keeping the Regiment's personnel alive, looking for loners to kill off. The sound of scuttling attracting his attention, Jeremie whipped his head around just in time to see a Kankrelat, staring at him with its blank look. Jeremie grimly leveled his gun and fired, the bullet instantly piercing the shell and destroying the machinery before the Kankrelat had a chance to charge its laser. The force field was specifically instructed to allow only certain objects in and out of Regiment- bullets and humans being included. Jeremie gave a small smile and thanked whatever fate had guided them to the present situation that humans had not made a gun that would automatically fire upon its locked target.

It was one of these days that Jeremie wished that he could have been fighting XANA by scanning and virtualizing his friends into Lyoko and giving them instructions, instead of actually going into combat. At least, if they were "killed" in combat, they would be materialized back in to the real world, still very much alive. If XANA attempted to change the programming to make it so that they would be killed once all their life points were lost, at least he could reverse the damage in time to bring them back to safety. Here, there were only life and death situations, hardly any rest for the regiment, and no way to stop XANA's attacks.

The screeching of tires jerked his attention from his thoughts and to a jeep painted to match the color of the ruined landscape. He saw not too far away a figure get out, and start to rapidly talk in English to his Sergeant, the latter becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the figure's tone increased in volume. The jeep that had carried the officer [who was now talking to Sergeant Towser] drove away, the driver most likely finding a place to park. Jeremie, interested in what their conversation could be about, slipped closer to them, pretending to be working, as to have an excuse if either of them accused him of eavesdropping on them.

Emptying his gun and taking it apart, he pulled a rag from his pocket and started rubbing it against his gun, cleaning the barrel first. Although he could not understand what they were saying due to the distance he was from them, he knew from facial and vocal cues that Sergeant Towser was obviously in deep trouble. Carefully inching closer and closer, he stopped when he was within reasonable listening distance, trying to remember the meaning of the English words that were being exchanged. Silently thanking whatever bout of insanity had brought him to study English as a second language in college, he focused his attention on their exchange.

"Sergeant Towser, what the hell have you been doing here in the desert? My officers leave you for a month, and you let your operations be seriously FUBB to high heaven, just when we thought you were competent enough!" Jeremie nearly gasped- the voice sounded faintly familiar, albeit with a harsher tone.  
'So, the arriving officer is a female…' Jeremie thought, keeping his back turned to the two so that they would not be able to see his surprised facial expression.  
"Hey, it's hard enough being one of the only officers here in this blasted Regiment, while your sector has a whole bunch of officers there too keep things nice and dandy."  
"Well, we figured you were able to take the added pressure, since you were boasting about how good of a job you were doing with your men. Don't you recall boasting about it before you went off to prove how well trained they were when you sent them out to fight that useless mission in America?"  
"Are you referencing to the slight incident that happened about two weeks ago?" Sergeant Towser mumbled, slightly bowing his head in shame.  
"Damn right! You commanded part of your unit to basically do a suicide mission by trying to protect the near-useless base in New Carthage!" the officer hissed in response. Jeremie could tell that it was taking her all of her restraint in order not to suddenly tackle Sergeant Towser to the ground.  
"It wasn't my entire fault; just ask First Lieutenant Charlie Stevenson, or Corporal Winters! They also have some knowledge on what goes on in this base! Uh… you can probably find them in the mess hall…" Sergeant Towser fidgeted nervously.  
"Mess hall, eh?"

Sergeant Towser muttered something inaudible to her. Jeremie slightly shifted closer to their position in order to get a better understanding of what they were saying.

"Then I shall meet them in the mess hall." A curt nod; and the figure left, going in the direction of the underground tunnels.

The Sergeant wiped his brow messily and growled in frustration. He turned around to head back to his quarters, eyes glinting angrily as he spotted Jeremie. Deciding that this would be the opportune moment to take his anger out, he coughed, straightened himself up, and prepared the special voice he had for people that were able to deeply annoy him.

"Belpois! What are you doing here!" he yelled rapidly in French, his mouth curving into a frown.

Jeremie flinched, pretending to be surprised at being caught, and dropped his disassembled gun onto the desert sand.

"I was cleaning my rifle, sir, until you startled me and made me drop it into the sand." Jeremie replied innocently.

Sergeant Towser looked him up and down, growled, and cleared his throat. His mind was turning what Jeremie had just said in his head, trying to figure out whether he was telling the truth or lying. He quickly came to the decision that Jeremie was trying to make him look stupid after possibly overhearing his conversation.

"Looks like you didn't do a good job of it." He snapped, grinding his heels into the desert sand and turning around. "Oh, and by the way…" he added, as he left "Fix your uniform, Belpois. If I get a bad report, then all hell will break loose, and you know what will happen..." he trailed off, muttering angrily as he turned around and began walking away.

Hastily reassembling his gun back together after shaking the sand from it, Jeremie slung it over his shoulder by its carrying straps and dropped the dirtied oily rag onto the ground. He gave a sigh of relief that Sergeant Towser's intelligence was hardly above that of a sloth and waited until he was out of eyesight before he dashed towards the mess hall, hoping to find out the identity of the mysterious officer that had talked to Sergeant Towser. Something in the pit of his stomach told him that it was Aelita, but his mind kept trying to convince himself that it wasn't real, that it wasn't who he hoped it would be. He coughed as he made his way down the long tunnel, grumbling that the mess hall shouldn't have been made in the worst possible place-the other side of the base camp- if it hadn't been for XANA's fondness of using aerial attacks.

The tunnels connected the more important buildings, being partly underground due to the almost diurnal aerial attacks made by XANA. It was important that people could get to a safer part of the camp, should a part of the shield be disabled or destroyed. However, one of the negative sides was that it was easier to destroy a large part of the camp by fire, a gas leak, or flooding. He cleared the last of the tunnels and stumbled into the mess hall, easily spotting the official, as she sat by herself at a table in the corner. Hastily getting some dinner from the workers, he felt slightly repulsed at the food when he saw the putrid colors it came in. Today, it was vegetable soup, some form of meat and rice, but it looked like the vegetables were rotten and the meat was not thoroughly cooked. Stifling the strong urge to vomit, he walked over to the officer, hoping that he wouldn't get a tongue-lashing like Sergeant Towser had gotten.

Disheartened by the fact that it was not the person who he had expected, he resigned himself to just trying to make friends with the officer and stay on her good list- it would be easier than getting on the wrong side of her moods and then trying to dig himself out. Giving the officer a quick look-over, he was careful to note that she preferred being alone rather than join in with the other officials sitting at a reserved table at the other end of the mess hall. 'Good', he thought, as that made it easier to approach her without being chased away by higher ranking idiots in uniform.

She was at a reasonable height, had dark hair and eyes, and sported a scar on her left eyebrow, which proudly was displayed as if it were a sign of beauty instead of being hidden. Below her right eye was a red colored droplet of water, the other eye a single, long green streak. Scribbles made by a blue-colored pen on the back of her palms formed abstract pictures, some depicting symbols, others showing imaginary creatures covered in scales, fur, and feathers.

She bent over to the watery substance that made up the day's soup and carefully sniffed it, frowning before beginning to overuse the salt shaker in an attempt to make the 'soup' taste better. Licking at the contents that she spooned up, she snorted in dissatisfaction when the soup failed to improve even by a small margin. Performing a cursory glance around her to see if anybody was watching, she wrapped the drinking tin that served as a cup with a rag, making sure that nobody could see the half-filled cup's contents.

"Mmm, good soup!" she declared, quickly dumping the contents of the soup bowl into the drinking tin, laughing silently when nobody that was within her seeing range had noticed her devious act.

At this point, Jeremie decided to make his presence known, clearing his throat and straightening up slightly to make a better impression.

"Is this seat taken?" he blurted out, the official quickly turning to face him with a confused look, for she had only heard a jumbled collection of French words.

"… Excusez-moi?" She replied with great difficulty, trying out the little French she knew.  
"Is this seat taken?" Jeremie said slowly, still getting a confused look from the officer. "¿Puedo comer aquí?" Jeremie asked, remembering some of his Spanish vocabulary.  
"Ah… Si, señor." She shifted a little so that Jeremie was able to sit with her. "Hablas Inglés? No hablo español bien."  
"Uh... Yo…" Jeremie attempted to find the words to respond that he indeed could speak English, but was cut off by a group of words that she muttered.  
"No me gusta…"  
"…Cuál es su nombre?"  
"Me llamo… es… Fell." She slightly frowned in suspicion at his sudden question, being careful to omit her first name.  
"Jeremie Belpois."

They ate- or attempted to eat- in silence. Commander Fell snorted at the mush that attempted to resemble edible food and used her metal spoon as a catapult to fling it onto the rowdy group of Savages, finding the whole series of events humorous. The startled cries of the mixed group of privates and recruits soon turned into angry rants on killing the person who was causing the dreadful barrage of rotten food. Commander Fell chuckled to herself, her body shaking with the effort of repressing the strange sense of humor that bordered between immature and slightly revengeful humor.

"Food fight!" One of the soldiers called, tossing some of his food portion at the group of Savages. One of the privates retaliated by throwing his corn meal at that soldier, catching him directly in the chest.

Soon, a small-scale food fight was fought between the two tables, the other tables watching in amusement when they realized that the higher-ranking officials weren't going to bother stopping the two brawling sides. Commander Fell snickered and casually leaned back to watch the battle. Bored with the general stupidity of the food fight and wanting to find out more of this person, he sighed and resigned himself to comparing his uniform with hers. On one side of her chest, "Commander M. Fell" was sewn on in yellowish-white colored thread, on the other, various writings that dictated what squadron she was in. A blood red eagle was one her right shoulder sleeve, and under it bore "LKS". Below the eagle was a patch of a fighter jet and a large brown-colored hawk overshadowing the words "Sky Hawks". Commander Fell noticed that he was staring at her, and so gave him a steely eyed glare, dark eyes boring into his clear sapphire ones.

"What are you looking at?" she barked in English, forgetting that he probably couldn't speak the language.  
"S… Sorry, I was just trying to see if you were the one that… Sergeant Towser…"  
"Jarhead?" She asked, surprised at his ability to speak English. "Yeah, that wasn't me- that was the Captain that came along with me. I drove the jeep. You better not get on my nerves, though… Guys have special ways of getting on my 'death list' easily."  
"Err… I just had thought that you somewhat resembled someone I know."

Commander Fell gave him a blank stare and did nothing as an awkward silence filled the space between them.

"Are you going to eat?" Jeremie attempted to change the subject, uneasy about the sudden lack of communication.  
"Not really. I've learned how to starve, or at least eat the minimal amount of daily nutritional values required by my body and conserving energy by sleeping as much as possible."  
"That can't be possibly good for you."  
"… and I care, why?" Commander Fell flung another glob of unidentifiable food at the undisciplined soldiers. "Hell, we're going to die anyway. I've been demoted just because I went AWOL."  
"You went AWOL?" Jeremie nearly choked on his 'food'. Commander Fell extended her hand and gave curt thwacks to Jeremie's back until the problematic chunk of food was expelled from his throat.  
"Twice." Commander Fell smirked as she retracted her hand, proud of the infamous deed she had committed two times in her lifetime. "The only reason I'm here is because I had to go along with the Captain that came along- I've recently tried to dig a tunnel out of my former camp."  
"Uh huh…"  
"You know…" she continued, flinging the last of the contents on her tray at the warring groups of soldiers. "You're not half bad for a guy, Jeremie. I usually don't talk to them, being a bit stereogenderal... sexist, if you don't like me making words up."  
"Thanks… I guess." Jeremie muttered, trying to figure out what she meant by that comment.

WHACK!

Jeremie rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, growling at the sudden attack.

"What was that for!" he demanded angrily.  
"That was a compliment. Don't ruin it."

With that, she collected her mess kit, got up, and walked away with her tray, pausing only once to toss her tray onto the holding bin. Deciding that he wasn't hungry anyway, Jeremie left his tray on the table, collected his mess kit, and followed her. Annoyed, Commander Fell walked faster to try to lose Jeremie, but months of military training had whipped him into shape. The weak computer nerd that the group had known for most of their life had been transformed into an athlete by the months of hard training imposed by the Drill Sergeants.

"… Why are you following me?" she snapped, casting a glance over her shoulder.  
"I… thought I could follow you a little… I want to get to know you better. …You haven't told me your first name, by the way."

Commander Fell regarded him coolly, deciding on whether to trust him with her name.

"My name is Michelle, but people call me Morgra." she cast a wary glance on her new friend, unsure if he could be trusted with the information that was about to be bestowed upon him.  
"Why?"  
"Because I used to put curses on people that really annoyed me." she replied with a hint of a small smile.

Jeremie stopped walking for a moment, trying to make sense of what she had said.

"Wait, Michelle!" he ran off after her.  
"Hmm?" She glanced behind her, raising an eyebrow at Jeremie.  
"I was just thinking… Could you possibly curse Sergeant Towser? … I mean, whenever you have the time. He recently started giving large amounts of demerits for no reason at all."  
"_Used to_, Belpois, is past tense. I don't curse people anymore, except the ones that really piss me off. Predicting the worse parts of the future is more fun."  
"My name is Jeremie." Michelle didn't reply, choosing instead to walk ahead silently. "Uh…" was all Jeremie could muster after being silently snubbed.  
"Don't pay it any mind." She stopped and gave a small smile. "Hey, look! There's jarhead now!" She pointed to Sergeant Towser, who was wildly firing bullets at a wild rat running freely around the camp. "Are all Sergeants this stupid?"  
"Maybe, after getting their head bashed a lot by the higher rankings, and all."  
"… do you know a guy named Colonel Sheppard, or one called General Ziggy?"  
"Not yet, why?" Michelle gave a small shrug in response.  
"Just asking… I met them months ago and I heard they got transferred here."  
"I'm not surprised. They're trying to get every man, woman, and child to the safest places possible. That's why some groups had been absorbed by others. …Have you met Captain Bill? He's part of the Carthaginians, and I figured you would want to talk to him a bit. He doesn't say much."  
"No, I suppose I haven't. …How about we introduce our friends to each other. …Whenever I locate where both of these guys are."

Michelle stopped, hearing footsteps echoing behind them. Gripping the knife of her mess kit tightly, she quickly whirled around and threw the knife at the eavesdropper, the intention being to pin their pursuer against the side of a wooden post used for the PA system.

"Evening, Michelle." The newcomer causally said, holding the knife between two fingers in front of her face.  
"Captain, my captain." Was the equally relaxed response, catching the flying knife as the newcomer tossed it back to her.  
"I see you're improving your skills. Better shape up soon or that idiotic drunk back there will soon surpass your accuracy skills. I just finished setting up the tent."  
"You didn't eat at the mess hall?"  
"No, not after remembering that eating specific foods here was an instant death sentence."

Michelle sighed, turned towards Jeremie and extended a hand towards the Captain.

"Belpois- er, I mean Jeremie, meet the Captain that made me come here- Captain Aelita Schaeffer. Cap'n, this is Belpois."

Noticing how Jeremie was staring at the Captain with a gaping mouth, she shifted uncomfortably.

"Er… I take it that you two know each other? …I'll be going now…" With that, Michelle slipped away and into the tent that was set up for both her and Aelita.

Jeremie babbled, his mouth making unintelligible noises as he gaped at her.

"What's the matter, Belpois? Cat got your tongue?"

Jeremie blinked once, twice before closing his mouth and making the first discernable words since being re-introduced to the person he thought was dead.

"No freaking way…"

* * *

Who's modeled after whom? After months of pestering these three for information, I had made up their bios and formed their characters based on their replies. Playing as Michelle/Morgra to reflect some of my characteristics, I do the same for these three. I just hope I stay "in character" for them, and don't deviate from their originally set characteristics. So, in alphabetical order according to their [current] penname, here they are. No new fan-submitted OC requests will be accepted.

**Flyboy961** as Captain "Boomer" Bill

**LyokoWarrior17** as Colonel John Sheppard

**PitchShifter6** as General Ziggy

* * *

"Mmm, good soup!" proudly sponsored by my cousin, who introduced me to getting rid of bad soup comically.

New Carthage- Located in Louisiana. There is also a Carthage in New York.


	4. Memory Problems

**Code: Ascension Chapter 2- Memory Problems  
December 2**

"What, Belpois? Never see a female Captain before?" Aelita smiled, and adjusted her bandanna a bit so that it didn't get in the way of her eyesight.  
"N…No! I didn't mean that… I mean… Oh, god. How can I explain? Aelita, it's really you!" Jeremie happily exclaimed before capturing her in a fierce hug, almost to the point of tears at being able to see his true love once more.

Aelita stared down at him, unamused at the situation. With belts pinioning her wings in order for her to keep a normal appearance, it was already uncomfortable to keep them in that position, and this Jeremie person wasn't helping matters at all. Although the secret of her having wings was safe for the most part, the wings created the appearance of her having a slightly malformed back. Thus, she donned multiple layers of clothing to ease suspicion from herself.

"Belpois, you have 2 seconds to get off of me before I report you." Aelita snarled, giving him a glare, as if daring him to continue to hug her.

Jeremie staggered backwards as if he had been slapped in the face, stunned by her change in personality and appearance. Her normally soft green eyes had been replaced with steely looking emerald orbs, giving them a cold and detached appearance. The crisp folds in her uniform, a dagger in its sheath on her belt, and a red bandanna with "Sky Team" in black lettering that was hanging on her head at an angle gave off a brazen appearance. Her hair appeared to be more red-colored rather than pink, and it was tied in a messy ponytail. Despite the changes in her appearance and the slight muscle growth that Aelita had seemed to have attained during the time of her disappearance, she still resembled very much like the Aelita Jeremie had remembered.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Captain." Jeremie babbled, nervously running a hand through his slightly dirtied hair. "I don't know what came over me…"  
"It's alright, Belpois." Aelita gave a small smile. "I know that the mess hall food can get into your brain. It's basically neurological and gastrointestinal poison."  
"I…" he paused, looking curiously at her. "Do you remember me?"

Aelita frowned, scratching her head as she tried to recall meeting with him before today's current date. He certainly looked familiar, though Aelita couldn't place exactly where she had seen him before. 'It could have been one gigantic coincidence, though.' she thought, dismissing Jeremie as either a person she had only glanced at as she was walking by somewhere, or someone that looked similar to someone that she remembered.

"No, Belpois. I do not recall meeting you at an earlier date or place"

Jeremie frowned and sighed with exasperation. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a small light brown envelope and handed it to Aelita, who accepted it with a questioning look.

"Here, take it." Jeremie sighed resignedly. "I've been keeping it for a long time, because it reminded me of you. It's what kept me going through all of this crap XANA put us through."

Jeremie gave her a wistful smile, then turned around and departed for his tent, leaving Aelita with the package. Confused by the turn of events, she pocketed the envelope and headed for her own tent, parting the olive green colored flaps to enter. Using a metal pan as a sink and a glass of water, Aelita brushed her teeth, her mind drifting to what Jeremie meant and whatever could be in the envelope. Deciding that her curiosity could not wait any longer, she spat out the water she was gurgling and headed over to her side of the tent.

Sitting on her sleeping bag that made up her bed, she carefully opened the package once she settled in the numerous amounts of blankets she brought along, gasping at the golden metal that glinted brightly in the light. Carefully, she turned the object over on her palm and read the inscriptions, trying to persuade herself that this wasn't real. On the other side of the tent, Commander Fell was trying to go to sleep, breathing evenly in and out in an attempt to bore herself to sleep.

Resigning herself to whatever madness had descended upon her; she let the object rest under a folded blanket that imitated a pillow and shifted into a more comfortable position. Turning off the portable gas lamp, she changed into more comfortable clothing and took off the belts that bound her wings. Letting them fan out a bit, they slightly touched the walls and Commander Fell, who grunted and turned away from the offending feathers.

"Stop tickling me with those things." She sleepily grumbled, a hand giving a small swipe to the wing that had tickled her nose.  
"Deal with it." Aelita shot back, lying on her stomach and pulling up the blankets to fully cover her wings.

Michelle's response to Aelita came in the form of a muffled grunt. Aelita's hand shot under the 'pillow' subconsciously grabbing the object and curling around it.

"Good night, Michelle." Aelita mumbled, closing her eyes and letting her white wings curl around her.  
"Bad morning, Aelita." was the slightly muffled reply.

[Page Break]

**Time:** Near 22:50

Dear Journal,

Today, I think I'm going crazy. Aelita's somehow alive, though the explosion and the building's collapse should have effectively killed her. Today, I met a person that sounds remarkably like her… even having some of the physical traits like Aelita, and she even has her name. I wonder if I was insane to have given Aelita's wedding ring to her. I wonder if it really is Aelita, but I know that it is impossible.

I also made a new friend. Her name is Commander Michelle Fell. I plan on introducing her to Captain Bill sometime this week. I still hate Wednesdays. It still smells like whiskey in here.

~Jeremie

Jeremie scribbled the last of the words onto the paper, trying to ignore the small play-fight Antea and Waldo were currently having. Both were playing soldiers and monsters, a mock form of the current war that raged around them. They pointed their fingers in a gun shape at each other, pretending to shoot and dodge the 'bullets' or 'lasers' that the other fired. Their screaming finally getting to his nerves, Jeremie playfully caught them in a 'tackle' and put them on their respective sleeping bags.

"Okay you two, it's way past your bedtime." He playfully ruffled their hair before getting into his respective "bed" and turned off the lamp, instantly plunging the tent into darkness. Pulling a blanket over his head, he lay on his back, staring at the "ceiling" of the tent and thinking over the day's events for a long time before turning over and finally falling asleep. Someone outside played Taps, the mournful sounding notes piercing the air.

[Page Break]

**December 3**

**06:05**

"Can I come too, daddy? I couldn't sleep last night."

Jeremie looked at Antea, unsure of whether to bring her with him or not. On one hand, the building was warmer than a tent, but on the other hand, her curious nature could possibly impede their rate of progress done on modifying the fighter jets and upgrading the defense grid.

"All right, 'tea. Just make sure you don't touch anything, or daddy gets in trouble, okay?"  
"I'm six going on seven, daddy." She crossed her arms in imitation of what her dad did when he was arguing against someone. "I'm old enough to know how to deliberately mess something up."  
"Okay" Jeremie laughed, pulling Antea so that she would rest on his shoulders.

Jeremie walked until he came face to face with the Technological building- the home of the Carthaginians. The building rose into the sky, almost touching the vertical limitations of the shield protecting the Regiment from being single-handedly wiped out in one quick attack. Two heavy metal doors blocked entry into the building from outsiders, its slowly peeling light grey paint a testament to some soldiers' numerous attempts to break in. On one side of the doors was a hand scanner, and above it was a retina scanner. Three security cameras were around the main entrance to the building, more so at the backdoor entrances that were known only to a few people. Pressing his palm against the hand scanner, and letting the retina scanner compare the pattern of his retinas to the optical data stored within the building's large databanks, the door slid open after confirming his identity, revealing a long, white corridor that seemed to go on forever.

"Welcome, Private Jeremie and guest." The mechanical voice intoned as Jeremie stepped through the doors- the heavy metal doors automatically swinging shut behind him.  
"My name is not 'guest'." Antea frowned, burying her chin into Jeremie's hair.  
"No, Antea, it simply means that you are a visitor here, and you are not recognized by the system as official personnel. Since you're travelling with me, the system let you in."  
"Mm…" was the reply- Antea was slowly drifting to sleep thanks to the efficient heating system that was recently installed.

Stopping at another set of doors in the long corridor, Jeremie fished in his uniform pocket and pulled out a white ID card that had no markings on it- a seemingly useless piece of magnetized plastic that was actually a key that allowed Jeremie to access the building in its entirety. Holding up the card near a black electronic card reader near the door, it beeped after recognizing the card's signature and unlocked the door, electronically locking again when Jeremie passed through them.

What greeted his eyes was by no means comparable to the plain interior of the corridor he had just passed through. It was a rather large room, with several transport tubes that could transfer people or objects from one side of the building to another. However, instead of it just having a plain wooden table in the center and multiple office chairs for people to congregate and plan on new technological devices, the room was strewn about with electronical marvels. Panels and screens were fixated onto walls, rows upon rows of office desks had desktop computers and laptops with workers swarming around them, continuously checking and comparing data. In the center of the room, there was a holographic panel that displayed the world, the regions that XANA had conquered or was occupying highlighted in red. Jeremie made his way over to his work station, where there were chairs that had piles of print outs and information on them. As he was unlocking the holding chamber that protected his laptop from outside forces attempting to gain access to it without Jeremie's knowledge, someone walked up to him, grinning broadly, like there was nothing in the world that could dishearten him.

"Ah, Belpois, so nice to see you again" Commander Anthrax commented, grasping Jeremie's hand and shaking it with the ferocity of a tiger.

Jeremie smiled and greeted the higher-ranking officer, whom he had come to become friends with. Jeremie remembered the look of surprise on Commander Anthrax's face when he found out that he, Jeremie, was the head of the operations in the building despite that he was at a lower ranking than Commander Anthrax. Commander Anthrax shook his head, letting the strands of his black and red-dyed hair give off the impression of a lion shaking his mane. Commander Matthew Raymond Anthrax, at first glance, was an imposing figure, with strict rules and a habit of sticking to them no matter what the situation was. However, upon getting to know him a little, he was actually a person with a heart as soft as a marshmallow despite being toughened up by the military.

"Good morning, Commander Anthrax. Got any news for me?" Jeremie gently put Antea down and let her sleep on an unoccupied chair at his work station. With his hands now free, he saluted Commander Anthrax, the latter doing the same.

"I'm afraid that I do have some news, Private Belpois, and it's not nearly as good as I hoped." He replied as his smile slid into a frown. Jeremie cocked his eyebrows in interest at what the news could possibly be. "You see, our top spy and infiltrator, codenamed Blizzard, had recently discovered that XANA is building a large energy cannon that could cut through our best defenses in a single blast, or level the majority of a nation within minutes. However, since it is still in the developmental process and requires a large amount of energy, which XANA does not have yet, we have enough time to build a defense and attack the unfinished cannon."  
"… This reminds me of something out of Star Wars. Is this cannon named the "Death Star", by any chance?"  
"Not even in your dreams, Belpois." Commander Anthrax began to walk away from Jeremie when he suddenly remembered something. "That reminds me. Blizzard also said something about a spy infiltrating our base- a polymorphic specter, or something like that. Get on the case in detecting who it is." His eyes glinted with a secret that only he knew, the light giving it a slightly malicious-looking effect.  
"Yes sir!" Jeremie snapped into another salute, then relaxed as he saw Commander Anthrax's retreating back disappear into the frenzied movements of programmers and developers as they ran to transfer files to another.

Thankful that there was an ally there to help them fight against XANA, Jeremie got to work, turning on his computer and immediately going to the program that he had been toying with for some time- a program that reflected the qualities of the Multi Agent Program he designed a few years ago, though this program was made to heavily cripple XANA. He picked up a headset that resembled a Bluetooth device and put it on his ear, instantly receiving a seemingly never ending stream of information. A pop-up box flashed onto his screen, requesting his user ID and password.

**USERNAME: **JBlz**  
PASSWORD: **13055

"… Awaiting server response…" the screen flashed as it was validating his response.

"... Username and password confirmed."

A new popup then appeared on his computer, which requested a second username and password, which Jeremie had programmed just in case someone managed to get his initial username and pass code.

**USERNAME:  
PASSWORD:**

His computer waited for a few seconds before it immediately activated its voice recognition program, the instructions being transmitted to him via the Bluetooth look-alike device in his ear.

"Please state your username and password clearly." The mechanical voice droned in an almost realistic representation of a female voice.  
"Username 431I74. Password code 564." Jeremie replied as he got his flash drive out and put in on his desk.  
"Username AELITA confirmed. Password 5TGB6YHN4RFV confirmed. Welcome, Jeremie."

Instantly, program windows materialized onto his screen, and Jeremie began rapidly typing commands into them. Muttering to himself, he began to program upgrades for the protection shield. Knowing the limits of the system that provided electrical energy, Jeremie slightly altered the program, trying to find ways on the shield's upgrade being stronger, though with less energy consumption. His eyes were shifting rapidly as he cycled through the avalanche of program windows that flooded his screen as he attempted to take in all the information that was thrown at him. Within seconds, he was completely immersed in the world of programming, with hardly anything around him to break him out of his trance.

[Page Break]

"I still don't see how constantly relying on technology will help us in the future." Antea sniffled, wiping at the small dribble of mucus that oozed from her nasal passages. "I mean, what would happen if there was a shortage of energy? Then everyone would be defenseless, and everyone would easily be wiped out in a matter of minutes, even seconds maybe. It would be quite idiotic to think that our heavy reliance on electronical technology would keep humanity in existence- death must happen for life to occur. In theory, every species in the world will go extinct at one point or another. Examples of humanity's impeding extinction are the abuse of their home planet, overpopulation, chemical contamination of the ground, air, and water, and the strain humanity puts on the ecological system- moving animals from their habitats in order to ensure their survival by taking the resources that are available in that area."

Jeremie stopped and looked at the small girl that was walking beside him, amazed at the level of understanding she seemed to possess. Even though she was still very young, there was a definite twinkle in her eye that represented some form of knowledge and understanding of the world. With a dancing gait and a form of a graceful dancer, it could be assumed that she had elfin characteristics. Perhaps it was in because of her sprite-like intelligence that she harbored a skill that came in the form of periods of deep thought and logical reasoning. Maybe the young girl had inherited both her parents' IQ levels, and had the unstoppable urge to know everything around her. Maybe it was because of her love of science and math thanks to both her parents' professions. Whatever the cause was, the short speech Antea gave to her father would have surprised anyone unfamiliar with her.

"Perhaps it may be so." Jeremie reasoned, and started to walk as if he wasn't surprised by her observation. "Humanity has been dependent on technology since the caveman days thousands of years ago, when pointed rocks were used to skin animal furs so that they could later use the skin as protection from the bitter cold and have meat ready for consumption. As humanity developed, so has the technology that had been invented. For example, the Chinese invented gunpowder to blast away the layers of the earth to get to salt deposits. Albert Einstein developed the Atomic bomb in the "Manhattan Project" during World War II. Former Soviet Russia developed the first space ship to go into outer space- the "Sputnik". The first computers were built with hundreds of glass tubes that each kept an extremely small amount of data and took up an enormous amount of space soon gave way to more powerful and smaller computers that were capable of storing billions of bytes of data. Humanity, in essence, cannot survive for long periods of time without any form of technology- the ability to manipulate objects has been integrated into their brains from millennia upon millennia of using forms of technology. It is true that humanity does put an enormous strain on the environment due to their tendency to pillage the environment- taking everything that they can that is within their sight range. Humanity was, and somewhat still is, dependent on oil extracted from within the Earth for centuries, using millions, if not probably billions of gallons per year by the early 2000s, which put enormous pressure on the Earth."

Antea gave a small smile at the information that was fed to her, and Jeremie playfully ruffled her hair. Antea gave a high-pitched squeak and began chasing Jeremie around, the latter running fast enough to keep one step ahead of her, but keeping his speed in check so that Antea wouldn't get too disappointed and stop playing the game. Soon, both of them were laughing in pure exhilaration, Jeremie regularly turning around to see how Antea was doing. Unfortunately for him, he turned around to face Antea at the wrong time- Aelita happened to be doing area checks and was about to finish crossing the main division of the camp when Jeremie plowed into her, knocking them both off the ground.

"Belpois, what is the meaning of this?" Aelita snarled, trying to shift into a sitting position.  
"My apologies, Captain!" Jeremie hurriedly pulled himself up from their compromising position and sloppily saluted her. Aelita stood up as well and gave him a crisp salute after wiping the majority of the dirt from her dark blue uniform.  
"Tag, you're it!" Antea happily giggled as she lightly hit the back of Jeremie's hand, proud at being finally able to catch him.

Aelita stopped glaring at Jeremie for a moment to cast a slightly surprised look at Antea, who returned the favor by giving Aelita one of her more curious looks.

"Is this your kid, Private Belpois?" she asked in a softer tone. Jeremie nodded, and Antea took a few wary steps in Aelita's direction. "What's her name?"  
"Antea Belpois- I named her after her grandmother."  
"Tratto's blessing, Drappa." Antea mumbled, hugging one of Aelita's legs. Aelita looked down in surprise before kneeling on one knee and gently rubbing Antea's head. "May Tor and Fernis be with you."

Aelita said nothing, but picked Antea up and gently put her in Jeremie's arms. Giving a curt nod, she turned and left the area. As she passed a light that hung from its mount on a rotting wooden post, something gold glinted on her finger. Noticing, Jeremie too, gave a nod of understanding and left with Antea, assigning himself the mission of assisting Aelita remember her former life.

[Page Break]

Aelita was having another flashback- a memory that served as a device to further confuse her. She lay back on a pile of blankets and let the memories play as Michelle scribbled something on a piece of paper with a broken pencil. Being lost in her memories was something that she had come to expect; though after meeting Jeremie, they seemed to have increased in volume.

She was in the forest again, lost without a sense of where she was going. She was considerably younger, maybe at 14 or 15 years of age, wearing a dark pink skirt with a light pink hooded sweatshirt underneath. It was nighttime, and the moon shone down in the forest, casting an eerie glow upon the land. Branches were outstretched towards her like long spindly fingers, and the holes in hollow trees resembled evil-looking faces. Something growled, and several pairs of eyes with the mark of XANA flashed in her direction. Giving a small cry of terror, she started to run for some reason towards a manhole placed in the middle of the park grounds, chased by the possessed bears.

Wrenching the cover up and slipping into the sewers, she ignored the pungent odor of rotting garbage and picked up a scooter. As if her body had a will of its own, she unfolded the scooter almost as soon as she touched it and took off, weaving through the tunnels. Soon, she met up with four others and together, they ascended up a ladder and onto a bridge, a large abandoned factory coming into their view.

Aelita 'woke' up from the memory, gasping for air and sweating profusely. Everything was blurry for a moment before the image sharpened and came into focus. The gas lamp was still on, glowing softly as it illuminated the tent's interior. Michelle was still awake, drawing her boredom out in hopes of stopping the annoying case of insomnia she had at the moment. The scratching noises of the pencil against paper greatly annoyed the troubled Aelita as Michelle continued to draw; oblivious to what was happening around her. With a small growl, Aelita snatched the pencil from her hand and threw it outside, earning a scowl.

"That was my last damn pencil."  
"Shut up and go to sleep, Michelle."

Michelle glared and turned away from Aelita in favor of looking at the single-colored tent 'wall'. With a sigh, Aelita turned off the gas lamp, her other hand still holding the wedding ring that was on her finger, troubled over recent events. Aelita stayed awake until the first sounds of the morning trumpet blew. Only then did she fall into a deep sleep and miss the first day of training the Savages.

* * *

AN: Yeah, I was bored and did a bit of research on humanity's achievements. Interestingly enough, Thomas Edison created the first "electric chair", in an attempt to push business rival Westinghouse (forgot his first name) out of business. ...Don't get me started on how historians were able to trace Louis and Clark's journey.

No you may not use that for your essay.


	5. Get Away With Murder

Yes, I know Albert Einstein helped make the Atomic bomb, not the Hydrogen Bomb. My older brother had said that Atomic bomb = Nuclear Bomb = Hydrogen Bomb (I still don't see the correlation between all three). Thank you to the person that sent me a PM clearing it up. Chapter has been edited for the correction.

Have a late Christmas present, people. Drawings of Aelita and Jeremie in their Code: Ascension garbs are up on my DA account. I finally found a camera while trying to find the knife sharpener I got for Christmas (ever try to cut through frozen pork bones with a dull blade? Not a picnic).

**Drappa-** Alpha Female (Wolf)  
**Tratto's Blessing- **Greeting between wolves entering another wolf's territory. It's basically asking for permission to go through another wolf's territory.  
**Tor and Fernis-** Two of the wolf 'gods'

**Flyboy961:** I understand, and I do not blame you for anything that had happened. "Oh, but it's all right, it's all right, I'm just weary to my bones..." ~American Tune  
P.S. …what question?  
P.P.S. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.  
P.P.P.S. You can use Michelle (PTBKLCA) and my AU in an unlimited amount of your stories.  
**Fraz Hopper: **You are correct; John Sheppard is another reference to Stargate. I'm not a fan of the series, though (or most sci-fi shows, to be truthful).

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 3- Get Away With Murder**  
**December 10**  
**07:23**

"I don't think it was suicidal." Jeremie stated firmly, pointing to the wounds on the body. "The wounds indicate that his lungs were punctured by a sharp object, which made the lungs drown in blood as he tried to breathe. His body and brain was shut down from the lack of oxygen, since he couldn't breathe."  
"Suicide wasn't our ruling; it was the ruling handed down by that idiot Sergeant Towser. We just came down here to see if the ruling was true. Plus, I had suspected it was probably a murder committed by the spy Commander Anthrax was yapping about for the past... I don't know how long." The investigator replied, donning a pair of clean vinyl gloves he pulled out from his pocket.  
"The question is how the polymorph got through the shield in the first place…" Jeremie rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I had made sure that the shields would have rejected anything bearing anything associated with XANA…"  
"Maybe it went through the shield before you guys calibrated the shield to reject polymorphic specters or anything carrying the XANA virus. I heard that you techies had a hell of a time trying to regain your systems from XANA's virus infection early in the war. Maybe this poly… whatever it is was XANA's test to see how well our defenses were. Maybe you guys were able to calibrate the shield before XANA had a chance to flood this stupid camp with stupid… poly… clone things."  
"Damn…" Jeremie murmured in awe, lightly kicking the dead body that lay in front of him. "I know that Commander Anthrax got the men to start searching for the intruder, but I didn't expect him or her to have struck so… quickly."  
"No shit, Sherlock." The investigator barked, waving an impatient hand to signal Jeremie to step away. "Whoever did this is a goddamn master at carving a blood eagle."

Being careful not to step on the ever growing pool of dark-colored blood that came from the gashes on the body, Jeremie stepped back and allowed the forensics team to investigate the soldier's cause of death. The dead soldier had a horrified expression on his face, his eyes were wide open and his mouth was still ajar, as if he was silently screaming in pain. His chest was ripped wide open, and his ribs were spread outward, as if they were wings, showing his organs inside of his body. His skin was cool, clammy, and a bluish color- the result of the lack of blood circulation. Private Thompson had been dead for at least four hours, more or less, before Jeremie had discovered him lying dead in the woods.

The investigator shook his head at the sight of another gruesome death and started to draw a chalk outline around the body. Seeing many murders throughout the years of his life had toughened him up to the point where it hardly affected him anymore, unlike when he was starting our and nearly vomited at the sight of every murder. New Yorkers were tough, and growing up in a place where rival gang members slew each other constantly also had an effect on him. Being careful not to otherwise touch or move the body, he signaled to the photographer to take a few pictures of the crime scene and the body. The sight of the soldier's gory death coupled together with the nauseating scent of blood was in the air triggered a strong urge in Jeremie's stomach to relive itself of its last meal. Fighting the reflex to vomit, Jeremie made his way out of the edge of the woods and passed by his fellow colleagues, wearing a haunted expression on his face.

"Damn… I've seen deaths before, but this is the first time I've seen a body… treated that badly." He gasped, trying to regain some color in his face.  
"Hey, Jeremie!" Michelle called out, bounding up to him from where they had set up a small campfire. "How're things going? I haven't seen you in a while."  
"Well… I'm starting to get closer to Aelita little by little. We're starting to talk a lot more to each other…"  
"Not that" Michelle snapped impatiently. "I want to know what got you scared like that. You look like you've seen a ghost."  
"Or a blood eagle." Jeremie concluded darkly. "Private Thomson has been found in the woods- dead."

Michelle stopped walking alongside of him and gave him a weird look. Jeremie stopped walking too and gave a small sigh and proceeded to try to explain what a blood eagle is.

"A blood eagle is…"  
"I know what the hell a blood eagle is. I've watched too many re-runs of Gangland on the History Channel because I had nothing better to do."  
"He was a good man, Private Thompson." Jeremie shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. "I don't know why anyone would kill him, though."  
"Maybe it's because he knew something." Michelle concluded.  
"What?" Jeremie raised his eyebrows in interest.  
"Oh, come on. I know you've seen those cheesy clichéd movies where the bad guys kill people just because those same people knew a secret about them? This Private Thompson person had to know an important secret that could have tipped the war in the humans' favor."  
"Or he could have used the killing to warn us of what would happen if we continue to struggle in this dammed war." Michelle lightly tugged on his arm and led him to the company of the soldiers gathered around the campfire.  
"Why do you fight?" Michelle suddenly asked, giving him one of her strange looks. "What is the reason for you to fight in the war?" Jeremie shrugged in response.  
"I guess I fight because I'm trying to save the rest of the human race from death. It's been my duty ever since I discovered Aelita trapped within the supercomputer. What's your reason to fight?" he asked suddenly before she had a chance to ask why Aelita was in a supercomputer.  
"What else is there to do?" She replied bitterly looking up at the sky. "I tried to go AWOL twice because I'm trying to get out of this war. Whenever I go up in the sky, I crash my plane somewhere. I simply don't want to fight anymore." She sat down near campfire and motioned Jeremie to sit nearby.

Jeremie gratefully extended his hands out and felt the fire start to warm his fingers. Quickly looking around, he recognized a few faces, which he acknowledged with a small nod of his head. Captain Bill sat opposite of the fire, Corporal Winters sat beside Michelle, and a small assortment of soldiers sat nearby. Michelle lightly waved her hat in greeting, and Captain Bill grinned in reply. Jeremie gave a small cough, and tried to get the images of his slain comrade out of his mind, without much success. In truth, he had unknowingly forced his mind to remember the gory death of his friend- it would provide him with more reason to be angrier with XANA. Hopefully, it would help him spur the movement to ultimately destroy XANA once and for all.

"Hey, Joe!" Michelle suddenly called to Corporal Winters. "Your mother is so ugly, your dad found her at a dog show!"  
"Your mother is so stupid; she spent the whole day saying "is not" to Artoo!" [1][2] He shot back, grinning.  
"Your mother is so stupid, she thought Jar Jar came with Pickles Pickles!"  
"Your mother is so ugly, when she went to an ugly contest, they said "Sorry, no professionals!""  
"Your mother is so fat, Jabba the Hutt said "Damn!""  
"It's nice to see you, Michelle." Joseph conceded, grinning broadly. "I don't think our mother would have appreciated it, though."  
"Nah, mom never cared about those silly jokes." She grinned at Jeremie and waved towards Corporal Winters. "Jeremie, this is my little brother, who changed his name since he didn't like it."  
"You have a brother?" he asked, slack-jawed.  
"Two of them, actually. I'm the middle kid, but you don't have to know anything about us. My family is just a bunch of crazy idiots that call ourselves a family."

[Page Break]

The mission was successful, it decided, watching how the humans reacted to the death of a comrade. Wiping the blood from the knife it had used to commit the murder, it tossed both the bloodied rag and the knife into another soldier's tent. The stage was set, and soon, somebody would find both of the items and blame the inhabitant of this particular tent. Since it did not have any fingerprints as it was a mere polymorphic specter, the person that touched both of the items would further seal their fate. Knowing the nature of humans, they would not give the poor soul a chance to explain himself before they locked him away.

It gave a cruel smile at the thought, showing its jagged teeth, and walked away. It moved swiftly and silently through the camp, being careful to stay near the shadows. It continued to run until it had reached what it considered to be its 'safe house'. Once inside, nobody would have suspected that it was the murderer. Lather, rinse, repeat. Soon, there would be another death on the grounds, but it would be too late for the soldiers that were convicted of being an intruder sent by XANA. By that time, they would have been executed already.

Composing its expression, it entered the building and gave a nod to a fellow worker, who brushed it aside with a slightly irritated look- it wasn't a good day for her. Ignoring the less than stellar response he received, he cracked his knuckles briefly and prepared to go through what it considered to be just another normal day.

[Page Break]

Jeremie stared at the sky with a semi-hopeful expression on his face. Since there was hardly anything left to be destroyed outside of the shield's protection, the fires started to go out, thus making the sky clearer. The stars appeared to be twinkling brightly, but Jeremie knew that the stars never twinkled- it was an illusion created by the heat trapped within the Earth's atmosphere. He had gone up in planes at six to seven miles off of the ground during trips with his family. Whenever he opened the shades in a fit of boredom despite the Flight Attendants' urgings not to, he saw the stars just sitting there against the dark colored canvas that made up the sky. Sighing at the lack of progress that the army was making against XANA, Jeremie slumped against the building that made up the chapel.

"Do you go to church?" a soft voice asked, sitting down next to him.  
"I suppose the reason mostly everybody here goes to church is that it's the only place they don't get yelled at, Michelle." Jeremie answered with a small shake of his head. "Do you?"  
"Atheists don't go to church." Michelle scoffed. "Anyway, Aelita sent me up here to check on you because you've been sitting here just looking at the sky for an hour. You should go inside… it's much warmer." Jeremie smiled at her response.  
"Tell Aelita that I'm fine… and thank her for asking. I'm just wondering about what the outcome of the war would be like."  
"Nothing will change." Michelle snorted indifferently. "People will still go back to their stupid ways. They said World War I was the war to end all wars, but look what happened- World War II."  
"Actually, I was hoping that people would stop being so dumb this war ends- all wars have to eventually come to an end."  
"Then why start wars?" Without waiting for an answer, Michelle slid something in his hand, got up and walked away, flashing Jeremie a small smile of understanding.

Jeremie gave a small smile back and looked at what she had slipped into his hand. Unwrapping the paper that protected the small bundle from most of the environment outside of it, Jeremie's eyes lit up when he realized that it was a bar of chocolate- rare during the time of war due to the severe rationing imposed by the shattered remains of the world's government due to limited supplies. His stomach growled loudly, jerking him from his thoughts. Realizing that he had missed dinner, he took a small bite of the chocolate bar, licking his lips at the sugary taste.

[Page Break]

Date: December the tenth  
Time: Around 22:03

Dear Journal,  
Private Thompson was brutally murdered… I can't comprehend why someone would do such a thing, but I suppose since it was due to XANA, he wouldn't have cared. I just have so many conflicting feelings raging within me- I almost forgot it's going to be Antea's birthday in a few more days. I don't know what else to write here. Journals suck. I think Charlie read this thing once or twice, and then allowed Waldo and Antea to doodle in it- I didn't tell them that this was a journal. I'm now forced to write between their cartoons, a difficult feat due to the numerous amounts of them. However, I do find the cartoons hilarious, particularly about 'Sam' being virtualized to Lyoko as a floating dog head. [3]

~Jeremie

[Page Break]

**December 12  
06:03**

"As your new commanding officer for the rest of the duration of your training period, it is my duty to train you in preparation for the battles you will be facing. Normally, my colleague, Captain Schaeffer, would have been tagging along with me and beating some of you greens up to make an example for the others, but she's busy at the moment trying to kill a killer." Michelle said in English as she paced up and down the row of English-speaking privates. "Now, I know that it is cold outside, and you're probably thinking that each and every one of you will go inside to train, correct?" Michelle grinned warmly.

The privates looked at each other, shivering in the freezing temperatures and nodded slowly.

"Well tough, luck, soldiers! This is the 45th Regiment- the soldiers that make it through here are refined to their highest possible abilities, and you're never going to be able to achieve that if you don't brave the elements. Those that do will be those sissy wannabes that only act like they know what they hell they are doing. Now, since I know that there obviously is a chance that some of you will catch the flu, the sick will be transported to the nearby hospital, where-." Michelle continued on as she walked down the line of soldiers for their initial inspection.

One soldier got an idea, however, as she mentioned the unwell soldiers being excused from training for a few days. Michelle turned around just as she heard someone vomit, glaring at the offending soldier who had just vomited but did not appear to be unwell at all.

"Silverman! Did you just mess up my lawn?" she angrily growled, the soldier wincing as some part of him knew what punishment would surely befall on his head. "I want one hundred pushups from you on the double!"

Thomas groaned and got on the ground, careful to avoid his sick as he began to complete the hundred pushups. Michelle continued down the line, muttering to herself and barking at a few soldiers who were not following regulations. The privates stifled their comments of discontent, unsure if just voicing them would earn them pushups as well. One groaned, and was immediately given a stern look- today was going to be a long day, and the privates were sure that they were not going to enjoy one bit of it.

"This is FUBB…" Private Johnson whispered to Private Michaels.  
"FUC" Private Michaels whispered back, instantly getting slammed on the head by Michelle's gun.  
"I heard that." She scowled, walking away and slinging the rifle's carrying strap back on her shoulder. "Connards." She muttered dismissively. "Que japuta."

[Page Break]

**12:52**

"One, two, three, four! One, two, three, get to it, slime! My Great-Aunt can run faster than you!" Michelle's voice echoed around the camp as she ran with the privates along the perimeter of the base, encouraging them on by yelling at them as loud as she possibly could. "Come on, if you were able to climb a 50 foot wall, shoot down your first tarantula, and do a hundred push-ups, then this two mile run should be nothing!"

"Commander Fell!" one private panted, wiping the sweat from his eyes. "When do we get a lunch break?"

Michelle smiled and pointed to the building she was leading them to- the mess hall. Whooping with the pure delight of finally having a break, they entered the building in a fashion alike to a mob of people eagerly pouncing on the chance to finally take advantage of a sale. Checking the small wristwatch that was partially hidden under her uniform, she scowled, remembering that she had to do one of the most boring, demeaning, and plain idiotic punishments to be invented in all of time- KP. Entering the kitchen side of the mess hall, Michelle adjusted her cap so it covered her hair, and donned the government-issued gloves that the kitchen personnel seemed to have forgotten about. Cracking her knuckles, she began to pull items out of the food storage, muttering to herself. Spotting her assignment, she grumbled before having an idea on evading the accursed punishment.

Meanwhile, Jeremie was happily talking away with one of his friends, seeing as there wasn't much to do in the Technological building. Inching away from the unpleasant sweaty odor from the privates that had just entered moments before, Jeremie scanned the lunch as he waited in line with a tray, surprised to see a familiar face behind the grill instead of the usual cooks.

"Michelle!" he cried, waving an arm in the air to attract her attention.  
"Jeremie!" She replied, easily spotting him in the crowd thanks to his slightly different uniform that differentiated him from the other privates.

"What are you doing back there?" Jeremie asked, reaching out and getting a bowl of soup from her.  
"KP, but I let the chefs use them as projectiles to throw at each other, since they're fighting over some stupid, trivial matter. I'm giving them a break for the rest of the week around this time."  
"Why are you on KP?"  
"Eh, because of the usual crap, and because it's a little better than guarding the flagpole. I'm still paying off the attempted AWOL I did a few weeks ago. Basically, I have to come here every day for seven days from around this time to around eight at night. Mark's taking the afternoon for me, and if Aelita's not coming, then he'll take her evening shift as well. Since I didn't want to do KP, I took the chefs' jobs. They're doing KP for me in return."  
"Hey, can we get a move on here?" Dr. Nielson grumbled, growing impatient at the slow progress of the Lunch line.  
"Foxtrot Oscar." She replied, ladling another bowl of soup and giving it to him. Dr. Nielson accepted it with a short grunt and moving on. "Hey Jeremie, you can hang with me in the kitchen. …Bring your buddy too. I have nothing better to do besides entertain myself with the chefs' food fight."

* * *

[1]- Artoo- R2-D2 from Star Wars  
[2] - Yo mamma jokes 1 and 4 came from "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", the others coming from a clip from "Robot Chicken".  
[3]- Cartoon in question was titled "Sam and Ulrich", a cartoon my little brother actually did when we invaded Detroit (Michigan) coming home after invading Mexico last year. It was funny only because of the bad drawings and because Ulrich messed with Sam (floating dog head). Note that Sam is not the kleptomaniac that was shown in Code Lyoko. This Sam is a totally different person. Brings approximate total of states [in the US] that Lyokonis has invaded to 18 (don't really remember invading Hawaii and Maine).  
**  
Terms You Probably Have Encountered**

**Guarding the Flagpole**- Light punishment, the soldier having to remain in places in camp where he/she can see the flagpole. This is possibly the dumbest punishment ever conceived. I wonder if somebody thought of getting a jeep and taking the flagpole with them.  
**KP**- Kitchen Police/Patrol The condemned person peels potatoes for a specified amount of time. Nobody said anything about peeling only one of them really slowly, though.  
**AWOL** (Absent/Absence WithOut Leave) - Getting your butt as far away as possible from where you were stationed without the consent of your higher ranking officials (who were going to say no to your leave request anyway).  
**FUC** (Female Ugly Commander) - What to call a female commander if you want to have you head smashed with a gun. This bears close resemblance to the four letter swear word you're going to say when said female commander overhears you.

Below is some of the American soldier slang that you have (and/or will) encounter throughout this book- how soldiers disguise swears through acronyms.

**FUBAR**- F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition  
**FUBB**- F***ed Up Beyond All Belief  
**JANFU**- Joint Army-Navy F***-Up  
**SOL**- S*** Out of Luck  
**SNAFU**- Situation Normal, All F***ed Up  
**SUSFU**- Situation Unchanged, Still F***ed Up  
**TARFU**- Things Are Really F***ed Up


	6. Parental Bonding

AN: An anagram, an anagram, oh catch me if you can, for I am the microbiological man! Leaving anonymous reviews in black and white, the first one to correctly identify me wins the fight!

**Flyboy961: **No galu govad gen. No in elenath hîlar nan hâd gîn. Navaer.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 4- Parental Bonding  
December 13  
00:36**

"Hey, daddy, wake up!" Waldo lightly hit his father in the side, eliciting a groan of pain from the exhausted parent.

Jeremie tiredly opened his eyes to see the stars twinkling above him, too dazed to recognize what the problem was at the moment.

"I see millions of stars." Jeremie yawned, glancing at his wristwatch to see what time it was.  
"Do you know what this means?" Waldo hissed, trying to shield himself from the cold. Antea sat with her blanket around her, shivering slightly from the lack of warmth.  
"Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time-wise, it appears to be extremely early in the morning. Theologically, it means that there are mysterious deities that have great powers and we are insignificant. Meteorologically, it means that it will be a beautiful day. What does it mean to you, Waldo?"  
"It means that somebody took our tent." Waldo grumbled. Jeremie groaned and gave a loud cry of anger at whoever had done this.

Meanwhile, Corporal Winters had just finished expanding and renovating his tent when he heard Jeremie's shout echo throughout the campsite. Turning his head in the direction Jeremie's roar of anger had come from; he raised an eyebrow at Jeremie's outburst and nonchalantly shrugged.

"Gee, I didn't think he would miss it." He murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I'm sure he knows the meaning of borrowing, and I bet that he's the person not to hold any grudges or anything…"

[Page Break]

"Ulrich! Ulrich!" Jeremie whispered in a harsh tone, lightly shaking the aforementioned Marine's tent. "It's an emergency!"  
"Jeremie, do you know what time it-" Ulrich mumbled, rubbing his eyes.  
"Someone stole our tent! It's freezing out here! Look, can we stay with you until I get another tent?"

"Look, I'm sorry Jeremie, but I can't let Antea come into my tent. I mean, there's hardly any room with you, Waldo, and I, and adding one more person would be chaos." Ulrich complained, upset that he had been woken up just as soon as he had gotten back from a long mission. "I mean, being a Marine is not a picnic, but… come on. Isn't there some other place where Antea can bunk in?" Ulrich suppressed a yawn, fighting back the urge to fall asleep where he stood.

Jeremie thought for a moment, brightening up when he came to a plausible solution.

"I have an idea… but I'm not sure if it's going to work." Jeremie whispered, a small frown coming to his lips once he thought of the downsides to his plan.

[Page Break]

Jeremie stood outside of a tent, biting back his fears that they would reject Antea. It was obvious that at least one of them was a night owl- the gas lamps were still on, illuminating the olive green color of the tent with a warm yellowish glow. Hesitantly, he cleared his throat and lightly shook the tent- a common gesture between soldiers if they wanted to talk to someone that was currently inside of their tent. Almost instantly, he heard movement and a mixed assortment of grumblings from the two females occupying the said tent.

"You get the tent flap. I answered that idiot Towser that was trying to court me last time." Aelita mumbled from within the tent.  
"Fine…" Michelle grumbled, opening the tent flap and poking her head out. "It's Jeremie, Aelita." She shouted back, Aelita sighing in relief. "Hey, kid. What do you need?" She gave an appreciative smile.  
"I was going to ask if you could…" Jeremie nervously scratched the back of his head. "Uh… can Antea bunk in with you guys for a few days? I mean, if that's okay with you guys… Somebody stole our tent and…"  
"Let me guess… it was my brother, wasn't it?"

Jeremie gave her a blank look before giving a small shrug of his shoulders.

"It possibly could have been him. I mean, after all, he did prank Sergeant Towser at least four times this month." Jeremie finally answered.  
"No need to worry, Belpois." Michelle grinned, as if Christmas had come early this year. "We've got plenty of room here. …I was worried that I would be bored for another whole minute."  
"Thanks, Michelle." Jeremie breathed a sigh of relief and shepherded Antea into Aelita's tent.

"Yay, mommy!" Antea chirped happily, running up and pouncing on Aelita, giggling madly as she buried her head in Aelita's chest. Aelita gave a weak smile in response and let her head rest back onto the small pile of blankets, allowing Antea to snuggle up beside her.  
"You're doing this so that Aelita gets some quality bonding time, aren't you?" Michelle raised an eyebrow.  
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not." Jeremie whispered in response, giving a small nod in response, and turned around to leave.  
"Hey, Jeremie come here for a second." Jeremie turned around in response. "I made up a small curse you can put on Sergeant Towser in my spare time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it- Aelita stole my pencil. Anyway, you can just put anything you want in there." Michelle finished, handing Jeremie a folded piece of loose-leaf paper.  
"Thanks, Michelle."

[Page Break]

**05:40**

Aelita groaned and tried to move from the extremely uncomfortable position she was in. Beside her was Antea, who slept soundly and was curled up to stay warm due to the freezing temperature outside. Being as silent as possible, she slowly got up and noted that Michelle had already left for her morning duties.

"I guess you can sleep on her side, then, for the moment." Aelita murmured to nobody in particular, attempting to disengage the small arms that wrapped around her torso.

Antea moved in her sleep and mumbled a little, clutching Aelita even tighter in response. Aelita exhaled slowly in exasperation and tried to think a way out of this predicament. On one hand, she could let wake Antea up in order to change for her morning duties before leaving, but on the other hand, she could just try to remove Antea's hold on her without disturbing the latter.

'Still, it wouldn't be right just to leave a kid inside a tent by herself.' She thought.

Cautiously slipping out of Antea's grasp, Aelita stretched, sighing in relief on finally being able to stretch. Hastily putting on her uniform and trying to iron out some wrinkles with her hand, she prided herself on being able to dress in full uniform in no time at all. Looking over to Antea, she gingerly slid her onto her back and made sure that her arms supported the small child's legs and that Antea's arms were securely wrapped around her neck before departing. Making her way over to the other side of the camp, she slipped into an unmarked building presumed to be the Regiment's intelligence center, where the officials would plot their next move against XANA.

A soldier acting as a guard waved her through the security protocols, attempting to stifle a yawn in the process. Aelita passed through all of the added safety features, a little more than annoyed when she had to provide proof that she was human- they would draw a blood sample to confirm their DNA. The blood seeping through the small incision they made was an added bonus to the officer's proof of humanity. Antea gave a small whimper in her sleep when a guard made a small cut on her hand in order to wave her though the checkpoint. Aelita impatiently waved them away when they were done scrutinizing both females' identities.

"Get out of my way." Aelita snarled at an official standing in front of her, pushing through a set of double doors to enter the lobby.

The lobby wasn't actually a lobby however- it was more of a second checkpoint where numerous stern officials with shotguns glared at each and every person that entered the building after going through the security point. Not only did it unnerve potential mischief makers, it provided as a secondary defense against any invaders who decided to attempt to steal important documents. Aelita gave one grim-faced official a hard glare in response, unaffected by the lanky guard's attempts to appear more threatening than he actually was.

Left, right, right, enter the door on the left, go up three stories, walk down the corridor, make a left, make a right, walk down a small set of stairs- did they intentionally make this place so confusing in order to deter invaders? Fortunately, Aelita had memorized the route quickly enough from the directions a maintenance worker had given her- she was unwilling to give off the appearance of a foolish person that did not know any sense of direction.

"There's a memory inside my head, it feels like a part of me is dead… I should save you… but I want to watch you drown…" The music on the loudspeakers crackled.

Aelita shook her head- it was obviously an attempt by Group Headquarters to make the building have a less serious nature and to encourage positive discussion.

"They really should put more encouraging music on…" Aelita muttered, stopping at a set of black doors guarded by four heavily armed soldiers. "Bonjour" Aelita murmured to one of the soldiers, pressing her palm against a panel after waving her identification card in front of them.

"I love you… now that you're six feet underground…" the artist sang at the same time the panel chirped upon recognizing Aelita's handprint.

A door clicked open, and Aelita stepped in, the doors automatically shutting once they clicked back into position. Aelita squinted, trying to see in the dimly lit room. In front of her was a large rectangular table covered in maps with shadowed figures sitting at either side of the tables. A rather large clock displaying the current time was hung at the far wall, several other clocks displaying the times of different time sectors hung on the wall around it. A figure sitting at the extreme end of the table smoked a cigar, the white smoke slowly drifting upwards. He pointed to an open seat, and waited until Aelita was seated before debriefing the next mission. Aelita stifled a yawn and let Antea sit on her lap, glaring at the clock as if it would move faster if she did so.

[Page Break]

**12:32**

"So, if we strike at point A, we should be able to cripple their defenses enough to buy us about two weeks of time. Not only will it distract XANA's war effort, it will give the other armies enough time to plot a counterstrike. We plan to strike at that point by Christmas Eve- I believe we have enough energy stored to power the planes. After that, we will then gather all the free forces remaining in the world and use them to mount a massive attack on the cannon, just before it will devastate even one molecule of the world. All in favor of setting this maniacal AI's world on fire say 'I'."  
"I" all those in favor said.  
"Dismissed!" he barked, saluting the departing officials.  
"Well, that was a waste of time," Antea yawned, holding Aelita's hand as she walked alongside the older pinkette.  
"True, but I have a surprise for you," Aelita grinned, giving Antea a sly wink. "It was slightly difficult in persuading them to make it, but they did."

Antea frowned and attempted to perform the puppy-eye pout on her mother, remembering that most of the time, it worked. Aelita, still smiling broadly, shook her head in response.

"Uh-huh, Antea. Curiosity killed the cat."  
"But I'm not a cat, mommy." Antea smirked.  
"You still have to wait a little while until you can see it, otherwise it would ruin the effect."  
"When?"  
"Tomorrow night." Aelita grinned, seeing the astounded expression on Antea's face when she realized what was happening.

[Page Break]

**19:47**

The starry skies were now covered by a thick gray blanket of clouds, which loomed threateningly over the campsite. Lightning split the sky in brilliant flashes of light, visible for only a split second before it disappeared. The crashing thunder was deafening to any soldier unfortunate to have been caught outside at the moment a particularly loud boom sounded, shaking the buildings slightly. Gusts of wind picked up into strong winds, causing the tents to be buffeted by the unrelenting wind. As a blinding show of lightening flashed across the sky and briefly illuminated the camp with white light, rain began to fall from the clouded sky. At first the rain fell lightly, but it soon became a downpour, droves of soldiers soon becoming soaked from the rainfall, which caused them to immediately seek shelter in the mess hall and in their tents. Soon, the rain became melodious in a strange sort of way, the water droplets hitting the ground in a rhythmic fashion. Michelle stood outside, allowing herself to be fully drenched, not appearing to care if she was completely drenched in rainwater.

"Let the rain fall down and wake my dream, let it wash away my sanity, 'cause I want to feel the thunder, I want to scream, let the rain fall down, I'm coming clean…" she softly sang, eyes downcast.  
"What are you singing?" a voice asked, startling her into turning around.  
"Hey Bill." She answered without a trace of happiness in her voice. "Why are you out here?"  
"I enjoy the outdoors." He shrugged, leaning against the side of a building. "I was going to ask the same thing."  
"Me? I was singing 'Coming Clean', by Hilary Duff… I'm not really a fan of her music, but this song kind of reminded me of… her, besides 'Chasing Cars', by Snow Patrol." She took off her uniform cap, letting the rain soak her dark colored hair.  
"May I ask who this person you speak of is? I mean, if it's not a bother to you, or anything."  
"'She' refers to one of my long-time friends."  
"What happened? Are you alright?"  
"She was killed."  
"Ah, I see…"  
"I was the one that killed her. With this very knife too," she added, showing the knife she had stolen from Sergeant Towser. Captain Bill's face immediately crumpled into an expression of confusion. "It belonged to her."  
"Why did you kill her?"  
"I didn't have any choice." She spat bitterly, turning away from him. "She was possessed by XANA… and the only way I could draw XANA out was by giving her body a severe electric shock, and then stabbing her in the back with this blade. She wouldn't want to have died as a puppet of XANA, anyway."  
"May I ask how do you know that it was her blade? I mean, there are thousands of similar blades." Michelle turned around to face him, waving the blade in front of him.  
"It's because I was the person that gave it to her for her birthday last year. I had '_No diriel! No veren! Avo 'osto! Avo Acheno! Hebo estel!_' inscribed on the blunt side of the blade."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Be watchful, be bold, fear not, don't look back, have hope. I was going to put the Elvish phrase for 'Happy Birthday', but I forgot how to spell it. Plus, it came in a neat dark purple carrying case."  
"You didn't answer my question on if you were okay or not."  
"No, I'm not okay. They're raising the number of missions before we can request for leave to fifty-five. It's… the anniversary of when I first met her, actually…"  
"I see."  
"See what?"  
"I see you, to be truthful."  
"ICU? There aren't any ICU wards in the hospital. The next thing I will say is the truth. The thing I said before is a lie. Up is down, puppets control their masters, my rabbit ate your dog."  
"That's kind of circular, isn't it?" Bill tipped his head to the side before realizing the last thing she had said. "Oh no, not Snickers!"  
"Because I had a snowball fight with Kee-Vi!" Michelle clapped her hands together gleefully.  
"Kiwi?"  
"It's the final countdown!"  
"For what?"  
"Happy birthday!"  
"It's… not my birthday."  
"Because I painted my previous rabbit red with ketchup. I thought it was a good idea at the time." Michelle admitted, referencing to an event that happened during one New Years.  
"Yup, just because it was years ago doesn't mean I don't remember you telling me about it."  
"Least favorite thing in the world?"  
"Commas."  
"Commas?"  
"Commas. What's yours?"  
"My pet peeve is ingesting pills. Especially the ones that you have to take daily- those don't smell or taste good. Anyway, it's equally on par with people with bad grammar."  
"Grammar Nazi?"  
"Yes, Fuhrer of Commas." [1]  
"You're not frowning anymore." Bill noted with a smile.  
"That's because I have a short attention span." Michelle replied, giving a small cough and muttering "Mood swings" before giving a small cough again. "People think I have ADD, but I don't. I just lose interest quickly. I'm crazy, I'm insane! They have to give me leave!"  
"That's crazy…" Bill said, giving a weird smile. "You know I was crazy once and they locked me in a room with bugs... Bugs, bugs make me crazy. Crazy, I was crazy once; they locked me in a room with bugs. Bugs, bugs make me crazy..."  
"Nah, you're sane. You can be totally insane to the point of being sane, actually. Good night, Bill. I'll introduce you to Colonel Sheppard tomorrow." Michelle gave a small smile and turned around, heading to a destination that she went to when she needed time to think by herself.  
"Good night, Michelle." Captain Bill gave a smile in return, turning around to head back to his own tent.

* * *

You have a small list of suspects at this point; I'm guessing that you're guessing that it's Commander Anthrax. Use it- I've been watching a bit of "NCIS" and "48 Hours: Hard Evidence" lately. I'd love to offer you guys a descript hint, but that will spoil all the fun. Plus, the people who know me well know very well that I love to mess with people's heads. So, the vague hint would be "hag hanrun". It's not Elvish, but it is a language within LOTR. It's more insane than painting Lyokonis on a chair.

[1]- Flyboy961 and I usually give each other nicknames based on what we dislike. Unfortunately, I have an evil mind.

"Get Away With Murder" is by Jeffree Star


	7. Older and Wiser

Outtake 1, edited from story:  
Scene: Michelle is lying on her back, head propped up by a rock with eyes closed. Captain Bill is sitting a little ways away, playing the therapist.

Cpt. Bill: Okay, now do you see a folder marked "Suicidal Impulses"? I want you to drag it to the trash bin.  
Michelle: …Access Denied. Need Administrator's permission in order to modify folder contents.  
B: Drat! … Who _is _the system administrator, anyway?  
M: *Snaps eyes open* You know what? Forget this! *Walks away* I still think it's fun to see if people miss me if I die.

Subject: Michelle Aerandir Fell  
Status: PTBKLICA

*3 minutes later* *Commando Wolf was killed by friendly fire*

Status: PTBKLICA complete. Program: Possibly To Be Killed Later In Code: Ascension was successfully initiated.

P.S. I checked my DocX inbox and was surprised to see the three drafts you had sent me had disappeared for some reason. … and after I started to enjoy them on iLita, too. (See: Tumblr entry)  
P.P.S. Ever go into the "box" where you can see the codes and input mods (ex: noclip, god, etc.)? If you get far away from special infected whether on foot or using noclip, they are killed by the AI, hence the occasional line where you can see "[Special Infected] committed suicide".  
P.S. x 10 ^ 21: Let the Games begin. Forgiving people doesn't mean that I let them off that easily. There's just the, ah, small matter of payback.

sv_cheats 1, z_spawn XAA, [set] when [Steam_Profile_UserID: Flyboy961] comes into [trigger space 1000], attack, disable [cheat: god], disable [Cheat: Buddha], disable [Cheat: sv_infinite_ammo 1], void [Cheats: noclip, give [item]], Activate code sequence [Final Descent], Microphone spam file [Animal_I_Have_Become . mp3]

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 5- Older and Wiser  
****December 14, 2020  
23:03**

[Part One: Who Is the Leader of Whom?]

"Wait, you're telling me now that after all this time that I am your commanding officer?" Michelle shouted, earning a hiss from Aelita- Antea was sleeping and they were supposed to be as quiet as possible. "All this time I thought you were my commanding officer!" Michelle continued in a harsh whisper, her dark brown eyes never leaving Aelita's emerald ones. "What, now you're telling me you're not! Tell me, who does Sergeant Towser listen to? How much of my life is a lie? Is our friendship fake? What about this war, this tent, my weapon storage, my uniform, my enemies? Is this an interplanetary scheme to make me think I'm a lowly idiot!" Michelle harshly whispered as she leaned closer to both Aelita and the gas lamp with a menacing grin, the simple illusion of a large, threatening shadow reaping some results.  
"Terror tactics, nice" Michelle sat back onto her side of the tent after uttering a few guttural sounds.  
"Like them? I found that I can easily transform my appearance to scare people- it's all in the area of looking as if you were insane. I then developed the ability to growl in imitation of a mad dog." She uttered a chuckle, a strange gleam in her eyes.  
"It's all the same with me." Aelita shrugged nonchalantly, resting on her 'bed'.  
"As I am the commanding officer of whoever or whatever I am the commanding officer of, I hereby give myself leave. See you in a month." Michelle crossed her arms in front of her chest and stuck her chin out defiantly.  
"Your commanding officers here will not be pleased when they hear about this." Aelita tried unsuccessfully to reason with her.  
"I don't care- it's fun giving revenge. If you hate birds, I'll get Hubert's trained eagle to incessantly peck you on the head."  
"You're evil" Aelita stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest.  
"And enjoying every minute of it, yes. Kippy Von Kessler* always said that several times to me whenever I did something evil. Well, that, and the fact that she would often shake me back and forth- I eventually begged her to do it again, because it was fun!"  
"Kippy Von Kessler?" Antea asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.  
"Nothing, forget I said anything." Michelle sighed, immediately thinking of her deceased friend.  
"It's Antea's birthday in less than an hour from now." Aelita stated, smiling slightly as she thought of the surprise for Antea she had helped create.  
"What did you get her?" Michelle whispered, giving a sideways glance at the sleeping child.  
"I'm not telling you- it's a surprise. What are you going to give her?"  
"Dirt!" Michelle answered gleefully, clapping her hands together, as if she was a six year old once more.  
"You're going to give my daughter dirt?" Aelita asked in disbelief.  
"Not just any kind of dirt!" Michelle scoffed at Aelita's lack of imagination. "It's sand, to be precise! I have a weird addiction of collecting sand from the beaches I visit. I figured it's a bit of being a rebel, since they were charging people to use things that were meant to be free."  
"Why are you giving her sand?"  
"Why, you ask? It's because, she could then parade around the camp singing 'I've got a jar of dirt', and then make people try to guess what's inside of it." Michelle responded, trying to convince Aelita by using madness to reason with Aelita's reasoning.  
"Idiot" Aelita snapped, shifting slightly to allow her wings to spread out.  
"That will be twenty-five demerits for insulting a commanding officer."  
"Shut up and go to sleep." Aelita said, pulling the covers over her in preparation to go to sleep herself.  
"You can't make me!" Michelle declared triumphantly, practically bouncing up and down. "You're not my commanding officer!"  
"You're a kid in an adult's body, you know what?" Aelita muttered, groaning and turning over on her 'bed'.  
"I know!" Michelle replied giddily. "It's what makes life a lot more fun."  
"You're insane!" Aelita cried out, slightly muffled by the blankets she rested on.  
"No, I'm Asian!" Michelle responded evenly. "They might have gotten two psychiatrists to evaluate me before Finals one year, but they were never able to successfully figure out who I actually am."  
"What?" Aelita asked in disbelief, turning towards Michelle, who was madly giggling.  
"It's true! I even got the papers to prove it! Oh, they thought I was the normal crazy schoolgirl, but I'm not! I'm mental!"  
"…"

[Part Two: The Problem with Pranks]

**December 15  
****00:15**

In the protection of the dark of night, two figures holding a flashlight, brushes, and four small canisters of paint made their way throughout the campgrounds to search for a particular tent, being extra careful to stay away from the searchlights that were doing their nightly sweeps across the campground. One signaled the other to stop, and both of them came to rest at the base of a medium sized tent, softly dropping the materials they had brought to the ground. Pressing an ear to one of the sides of the tent, the same person who had led the other there was satisfied when he did not see or hear anything within the tent. Grunting in satisfaction, he pulled his head away and walked back to the small pile of materials they had brought.

"Are you sure this is the right tent?" Michelle whispered to her companion, who was now busy with opening the cans.  
"Of course, this is it!" Corporal Joseph Winters scoffed, pointing at the tent in front of him. "He may try to disguise his tent, but I know where it is!"  
"Why are we doing this again?"  
"It's because Doctor Nielson has recently been a bother to me. Instead of getting the aspirin I requested for my abdominal pain, he thought I was messing with him and sent me out of the hospital without seeing the cause of my visit."  
"…and your point is…?"  
"Basically, we smear the contents of these cans onto the idiot's tent. I think that this material is hard to remove."  
"Why am I helping you, again?"  
"Why? It's because that since you're the older sibling, you are therefore responsible for my actions." Corporal Winters explained, earning a snort of disbelief from his sister.  
"It's not my problem." Michelle replied, arching an eyebrow upwards and recalling a whole mess of memories that included various mishaps from her younger brother's endeavor.  
"Just help me get these things open." Joseph grumbled, fishing in his front pockets for something.  
"Oh well, what the hell." She sang, settling into a crouching position nearby the canisters.

Taking the small Swiss army knife out of his pocket Corporal Winters tossed it over to her. Prying the lids open with a knife, she tossed it back to him and picked up a paintbrush.

"…I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"  
"Most likely, yes. So, while you're thinking how much of a stupid idea this is, just give basically everything a slash of paint, like this," he indicated as he gave the exterior of the tent a small, curved paint mark. "I got black and some neon glow-in-the-dark colors, so we should be good."

Michelle said nothing and entered the tent with a can of paint and a brush, waving her flashlight to have a better view. Grateful that the tent did not smell like sweat and grime, she made her way deeper into the tent, being careful to avoid any particularly fragile-looking objects. Sighing in resignation, she dipped the paintbrush into the bucket and began to decorate the various objects within the olive-green tent with black marks. Corporal Winters entered a few seconds later and began to decorate the interior of the tent with paint, after trying to decide which was the color most likely to annoy the person in question. Seeing that painting the exterior of the tent would give the prank away, he slashed paint onto the interior of the tent with the misguided fervor of revenge. Satisfied with the level of desecration done, he stepped back to admire his work. The bright white paint started to dribble down the side of the tent, disfiguring some of the words, causing a somewhat eerie effect.

'… two … we cannot…  
… let… go … ways,  
… is what you'll…  
As … wander through...' The paint read, when the majority of the paint had stopped running down the sides.

Smirking, Joseph picked up a bucket of paint and continued to mess up the tent as much as possible. The duo worked in silence, their ears constantly on alert and straining to hear the faintest traces of activity outside of the tent. Corporal Winters worked quickly, smearing almost everything within his reach with swipes of paint. Michelle, bored and finding no provocation to continue to mess with the property of someone that hadn't bothered her yet, looked around the disheveled interior, eyes resting on a book with the tent owner's name on the cover. Eyes widening after recognizing the name, Michelle swore loudly, causing Joseph to stop writing a small message on a wall to see what was the commotion about.

"Oh… crap." He muttered upon seeing the name.

Hearing footsteps coming closer to the tent, they panicked and hurriedly dashed out of the tent with their paint buckets, leaving no other evidence of their visit behind. Hiding behind a jeep parked near the main gathering site, they watched apprehensively as the tent's owner came into view and disappeared into his tent. Breathing heavily, both of them exchanged glances, or in Michelle's case, glares, and gave each other a small nod in acknowledgment to not attempt this ever again. The duo fled into the night into their respective tents, being careful to change into clothing that didn't have paint splotches on them.

Meanwhile, the owner of the tent, exhausted from the day's work, decided to get some reading done before turning in for the night. Snapping on the gas lamp, he was about to change into his night clothing when he noticed that they had weird splatter marks on the material. Bringing a pointer finger to it and gently picking up some of the substance, he rubbed it against another finger, coloring both fingers a bright yellow color. His eyes trailed upwards, widening when he saw the sheer amount of destruction to his property. One of his eyes twitched as he took in the numerous paint slashes were there, taunting him with their bright, offensive-to-the-eye colors. However, he didn't mind the colors as much as the shape that they looked like they came in. For you see, the dreaded shape he saw that was plastered all over his belongings was in fact…

"COMMAS!" he loudly yelled, waking his neighbors immediately due to the sudden disturbance he had caused.

[Part Three: Wings and the Jar of Dirt- er, Sand]

**05:03**

Despite it being extremely early in the morning, Antea felt wide awake due to the freezing temperatures. Though it would be nice for the soldiers to camp inside of the few buildings that were still standing, the simple fact was that the Regiment was increasingly becoming a division due to more soldiers pouring in as the 45th Regiment continually absorbed more soldiers from scattered fighting forces saved during the Regiment's rescue missions. As a result, the officials decided that the buildings would be used for official use only, due to their willingness to conserve energy. The soldiers that did stay inside the buildings were soldiers that were recovering from various bodily injuries ranging from the moderate to severe range. Antea curled up into a tighter ball under the blankets, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to keep warm- a small body loses heat quickly, and Antea had not grown much due to the lack of sufficient nutrition.

Something lightly brushed against her back, startling her into rapidly moving away from the offending object. Somewhat tangled within the blankets, her flight caused the blankets to pull back and reveal Aelita's wings. Freed of their bondage, they slowly spread out to fill up the area around their owner. Mystified by the sudden appearance of both appendages, Antea warily reached up and touched one wing with a finger, as if unsure if this was a mere illusion. She gasped in shock when the wing twitched in response to her touch, lightly fanning the air as it moved away from Antea's hand. Curious, Antea moved closer, reaching out again with the same hand and gently stroking the wing. The wing relaxed and moved downwards under Antea's careful touch.

The wing itself felt ethereal-it was light enough to feel as if it did not exist at all. The white colored feathers on the wings were soft as a pillow and smooth as silk, blending together seamlessly in order to function as one. Reaching upwards and feeling the topmost part of the wing, she felt muscles and bones that made the wing's form, along with the warmth that came from the blood vessels continually carrying blood in and out of the appendages. The wing raised again in response, showing the numerous amounts of small feathers that made it possible for its bearer to fly with relative ease. Someone coughed, and Antea instinctively looked towards the source that had made the sound. Tired green eyes met a surprised blue.

"Are you cold?" Aelita asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes.  
"Mhmm." Antea responded, curling up next to Aelita.

Aelita smiled and closed her eyes, snapping them open in confusion when she felt Antea snuggle under a wing.

"You never told me that you were an angel, mommy." Antea said, still fascinated with the wings' appearance.  
"I'm a guardian, Tae-Tae." Aelita replied, pulling a blanket over them. "I'm the guardian angel of this family."

[Page Break]

When Antea awoke later in the morning, there was a present crudely covered with gift wrap on Michelle's side of the tent. 'Antea' decorated the front in loosely written handwriting made by a blue marker. Slipping from under the wing so as to not disturb her sleeping mother, Antea crawled her way over to the medium-sized package and started to unwrap it. Inside of the package was a horizontally positioned glass jar that contained miniature replica of typical beaches- sand was filled up to a third of the jar, a small plastic bucket, a shovel, and shells of all shapes and sizes were scattered inside of the jar. Some sand that was inside of the jar came in various shades of blue and green- the image replication of an ocean.

"Wow..." Antea murmured, fascinated with her present.

Noticing a card attached to the jar, Antea pulled it off and began to read through the almost completely illegible handwriting.

"Sifting through the sands of many beaches, what secrets will you uncover this year?

P.S. Your father helped me with this. Your other present included in the package is from your Uncle Odd. Mr. Stern dropped it in front of our tent before leaving for another mission."

"Another…?" Antea asked as she gently moved the jar away from the wrappings.

Giving a small gasp, she held up the Marine uniform look-alike that was tailored to fit children of her age. The blue and white cloth was purely beautiful in its own way- the crisp folds of the uniform and the cap that came with it representing the pride Marines had in being strong both mentally and physically. Slowly, as if afraid that the magnificence would be lost if she crumpled it in the slightest bit, she donned the uniform, proudly standing at attention with her hands at her side, smiling in the face of a new day. Though it was dark out, it seemed that the sky could be illuminated by the way Antea was broadly smiling.

[Part Four: Many Meetings]

Four figures sat on the ground near a campfire; suspiciously eyeing each other with caution- it was not uncommon to be skeptical of people's behavior due to the recent killing that had sent officials and soldiers into an uproar. The facial features of each individual was illuminated in the bright light of the fire, dark and light colored eyes alike suspiciously analyzing one another in their scrutiny of the others' actions. Three males and one female sat an equal distance from each other; hands twitching in anticipation at grabbing the weapons at their belt should one attack. The air was tense, much like a scene about a Western showdown between two fighters dueling it out at high noon.

"Korn" General Ziggy started, breaking the tense silence between the four.  
"Hunting High and Low"  
"Piano in the Dark"  
"More than a Feeling"

Upon hearing the clarification of identity for each person, the group visibly relaxed, drawing their hands away from their weapons. It was not a code, and therefore it couldn't be intercepted and later decoded. It was simply a means of showing a form of identity to the other members of the group, the identifying factor being that each person had to state something about themselves, whether it was something that they liked, or whether it was a statement that would be viewed as meaningless babble to outsiders. What made it harder for outsiders to understand was that they never used the same identifying code twice, wary of the prospect of having the polymorphic specter take the form of one of them and attempt to infiltrate the group.

"Introduce yourselves, and we'll get started." Michelle began, drawing figures in the dirt.  
"Hey, I'm John"  
"General Ziggy"  
"Hello; I am Captain Bill"  
"The Science guy?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"My apologies, Mr. Nye. Everyone knows I'm Michelle, so I'll skip the boring part."  
"Hello everyone"  
"Goodbye, nobody"  
"I guess I'll start by telling something about myself." Colonel Sheppard started, moving closer to the fire. "I like Science-fiction shows, and I have a vast knowledge of weapons used throughout the wars fought. Since I have attended military classes, I have some knowledge about war strategies and different tactics used to win battles."  
"I have commanded some of the best fighting forces known within this war." General Ziggy said, straightening up in pride. "I am an excellent tactical planner, often taking the time to study my enemies' movements and their strategies in order to create the perfect comeback."  
"I am an expert in creating explosives, and one of the higher members in the Carthaginians. I can fly a fighter jet using only the instruments provided in the cockpit if there is zero-visibility conditions."  
"I am a weirdo. That's about it for me." Michelle commented.  
"You are not a weirdo." Colonel Sheppard scoffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I've known you for too long for you to be a weirdo."

Little did everyone know, things were about to get weirder as the night progressed.

"Airman!"  
"No, it's Flyboy." Captain Bill calmly replied.  
"It's the same thing." Michelle patiently replied. "Airman and Flyboy both means an aviator."  
"Then what does Gomer mean?" asked John.  
"When is France?"  
"Why is XANA?"  
"Where is the sickly old woman with measles that I used to call grandma when the rides broke down at the carnival?"  
"Ho-ho Beriberi"  
"What is Boomer?"  
"Nincompoop!"  
"FOOD!" interjected General Ziggy.  
"… stairs, planes, vans, woods, and small towns, small towns…" sang Michelle.  
"Why am I here?"  
"Because we're a crazy, non-related dysfunctional family." General Ziggy calmly replied, unruffled about the situation taking place around him.  
"Sergeant wants us to do more missions."  
"Sergeant can't make me do more missions."  
"X.S.S. Schicksal's my plane, fighting's my game!"  
"He's going to make you do more missions, even if you walk backwards with your hand on your gun at all times." John tried to reason.  
"That's why I made a vanity license plate for Thor."  
"There are ants in the pizza! Ants in the pizza!"  
"You have a license plate for a Norse god?"  
"No, Thor is my plane."  
"Near a tree by a river, there's a hole in the ground where an old man of Aran goes around and around..."  
"Why did you name your plane?"  
"The same reason why I named my laptop."  
"Why-"  
"It's part of the twenty things I wrote down that makes me feel like a nerd. Are any of you guys going to fly with me, or not?" Michelle asked, growing impatient.  
"You're going to crash again, aren't you."  
"We have a mission tomorrow. Better get some crash-landing practice in." Michelle replied, giving a sly wink.

[Part Five: Miniature Parent to Parent Conference, Heart to Heart Talk]

Jeremie watched with a smile on his face as Antea ran through the camp in her new uniform Odd had given her. The navy-blue clad girl happily chased after her brother, giggling as they played a Soldiers and Monsters outside, ducking behind passing soldiers and jeeps. He leaned against the door frame of the mess hall and let out a small sigh, jealous of the way children could easily let go of their burdens and play freely. Turning his attention back to the interior of the room, he noticed Aelita was sitting by herself with her head in her hands, eyes closed and muttering inaudible words.

"Are you all right?" he softly asked, walking up to where she sat. Aelita's eyes instantly snapped open, and she looked at him, almost wearily.  
"I am still having trouble accepting these new memories." Aelita admitted, removing her hands from her face. "I simply can't wrap my head around the fact that I am married to someone that I don't remember, and that I have two children with that same person."

"It's alright," Jeremie soothed, cupping one of her hands in his. "It's going to take some time, but I'm sure you'll eventually remember." Aelita stared at Jeremie, her expression that of confusion and a sense of uncertainty.  
"It's just so hard accepting all these things into my new life... This whole ordeal seems like a dream… a nightmare…" She admitted, attempting to pull her hand away from his.  
"You're not going to go through this alone." Jeremie responded, gently maintaining his hold on her hand.  
"Thank you, Jeremie" said Aelita, giving a small smile in response. "It's hard to believe that a mere four and a half months ago, I was wandering in the woods and basically living my life as a ruthless predator."  
"What happened?" Jeremie asked, Aelita responding by suddenly stiffening in her seat, her eyes growing distant as she recalled a battle that had taken place not too long ago.

[Flashback: Moonlight Melee]

**July 30, 2020  
23:?**

**FEAR!**

This very emotion running through her veins was the only thing keeping her alive- that, and the anger that was fueling her strength. Discovering the advantages of being allowed to use her full powers in her true form certainly had its advantages. Her white hair softly glowed in the moonlight, the individual strands being blown by an invisible wind. Her white, predator-like wings flapped in air, keeping her aloft and allowing her to maintain her sight on her adversaries. A white aura surrounded her body like a fire- the very essence of her power. The five Flying Mantas, with approximately a dozen Hornets following behind them as their backup, floated in the air as both groups met each other in a deadlock. Aelita held out an open hand, summoning power from her energy reserves. Almost instantly, a crescent-shaped weapon formed out of the thin air, and Aelita closed her hand around it, feeling the newly-found confidence flow through her. Aelita smirked, and the battle commenced once more, both sides fighting as fiercely as they had begun to fight approximately an hour ago.

Aelita flew upwards, which was an easy feat due to the amount of thrust provided by the enlarged wings. The Flying Mantas screeched in anger and followed her upwards, the Hornets following in hot pursuit. Reaching the target altitude of a thousand feet, she quickly performed a vertical U-Turn and headed straight towards XANA's monster, gripping her newly formed weapon tightly. A hail of lasers greeted her as she approached the monsters, nearly clipping her wings at least twice. Frowning, she swung her hand back and threw her weapon, the sharp points embedding themselves into the black eye of XANA on a Manta's back. True to its boomerang-like nature, the weapon returned to her hand after passing through the Manta's electronic components.

The wounded Manta screeched in agony, listing to the side as its vertical and horizontal controls were severed from their connections. The CPU, damaged by the impact of the weapon, overheated as its cooling mechanism failed to function correctly. The Manta exploded in a burst of fire and shrapnel, slightly damaging its partners as they flew in to take its place. Laser after laser was sent at her direction, forcing Aelita to press her wings close to her body and perform a barrel roll towards the ground in order to avoid being hit. Aelita narrowed her eyes as her body neared the ground, calculating the distance left for her in order to exit out of the barrel roll safely. Aelita grunted in satisfaction as her wings expanded marginally so that she wasn't directly facing the ground.

Her wings suddenly spread out fully, using what remained of her lift to glide into the trees that were dense enough to mask the aura emanating around her body. The monsters continued to fire their lasers at the spot where they had last seen their target, Aelita smirking as their shots missed her by a great margin. However, the lasers shot into the vegetation caused some small fires to break out, which worried to warrior. Clutching her weapon tightly, she leapt from the branch that served as her perching spot and flapped her wings, taking off into the air again.

"Yah!" she yelled, flinging her weapon at the mechanical menaces, silently cheering when her weapon made contact with two of the Hornets.

However, just as she was about to catch her weapon that was faithfully returning to her hand, a series of jolts on her back caused her to immediately lose altitude. She flailed helplessly in the air as she fell, wrestling for control of her wings again. Her wings jammed up due to the strain placed upon them and the effort of keeping their bearer aloft. Aelita's wounded back slammed into the tree branches, causing her to cry in pain momentarily before her body hit the ground hard. Bleeding and wounded, tears of anger leaked from her sapphire eyes as her wings puffed up to reflect the intense conflicting emotions brewing inside of her. Swearing vehemently at the two sneaky Hornets that had managed to escape her detection, she felt a strange power flow through her, fueled by her rage. The white flame-like aura pulsed with this new energy, growing larger and larger. Before she realized what she was doing, she raised a hand towards the sky and shouted the words that she had not realized that she had known until now.

"Dagger Storm!"** Aelita screamed in a rapidly swelling fury, her voice echoing throughout the forest area.

Almost instantly, clouds seemingly materialized from thin air, preventing the moonlight from illuminating the battlefield. A dark umbra also was cast upon the field, the fires caused by the monsters' lasers immediately being snuffed out. In the little light that was allowed into the battlefield, Aelita could faintly see the outlines of the flying monsters, confusedly flying about as they attempted to locate where they were. Suddenly, like thousands of tiny meteorites, silver glints rained down upon the monsters from the sky, piercing their protective metal shells unmercifully. A thousand daggers rained from the sky, stabbing anything that it came into contact with. The monsters, overwhelmed by the amount of damage received in a relatively short amount of time, exploded with varying force, shrapnel flying everywhere as the monsters ceased to exist.

The rain of daggers soon stopped afterward, and the sky and the surrounding area then cleared as if nothing had happened, the wreckage of the former monsters being the only hint of the battle that had taken place. The crescent shaped weapon embedded itself into the ground near Aelita's feet. Aelita sighed in relief at the outcome of the battle and relaxed, transforming into her normal form once she was sure that the danger was long gone. Her bright sapphire eyes slowly changed back into her normal green ones. Her image of a proud woman in her mid-thirties transformed into her normal age. Her wings reverted back to their original size, and her white hair coloring yielded to the bright pink locks that shone in the moonlight. The mysterious aura around her faded, the boost of power leaving along with it. Smirking, she picked up her weapon before she tilted her head back and let out a triumphant howl of victory that resounded through the ruined land, sending chills up the spine of the persons that heard the eerie cry.

[Exit Flashback, Enter Present]

"Aelita?" Jeremie questioned, lightly shaking Aelita's shoulder when she remained in her frozen position for quite some time, not responding to his earlier questions or his attempts to bring her back into the present.  
"Huh?" Aelita responded, shaking herself out of her reverie.  
"You were about to tell me something, but then you went into a trance-like state. I've been trying to reach you for at least five minutes."  
"If you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again. If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator." Aelita playfully responding, earning herself an evil grin made by Jeremie.  
"Guess nobody's home then." He slyly responded, Aelita sticking her tongue out at him in response.  
"Oh stop it. We're supposed to have one of those cheesy romance moments right now. Don't ruin it!" Jeremie grinned in reply.  
"So, Princess, what did you give your little princess?"  
"Why, I let her eat cake of course!" Aelita laughed, picking up a bit of frosting from her plate and putting it on his nose, earning a scowl from her husband. "It wasn't easy persuading the chefs to do this, since they're trying to ration food as much as possible, but… I convinced them."  
"Aelita, what did you do?" Jeremie asked suspiciously, wiping the frosting off.  
"Nothing!" Aelita replied innocently, a devilish twinkle in her eyes.

Meanwhile, the four chefs were stuffed into a closet, gagged and tied with ropes. They were not discovered until well after midnight, around two in the morning, when Doctor Nielson was looking for a late-night snack before going to work again. Nevertheless, after that episode, Doctor Neilson has sworn to lay off the midnight snacking after this particular incident.

* * *

I recently watched the episode "Crash Course" in French. In that version, Aelita says something that, when translated, means "Big Fudge", not the more hilarious "Big Fat Cheese Head". Michelle's rant in Part One of this chapter was inspired by "Scary Poppins", an episode in the "Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy".

* Kippy Von Kessler (aka Mudkip), one of the many nicknames I gave this particular person. Fly's "A Lost Friend: A Code Ascension Tag" has her as a main character.

** Night of a Thousand Blades is also called Dagger Storm. DS is what Aelita calls it, NTB is what the Military calls it, in order for it to sound more official sounding. Aelita's listed powers on my profile page are the powers documented by the military, as well as the ones Aelita has told them about- her basic Energy Field attack being omitted due to it not being considered a special attack.

I'm aiming to get the real (and updated) PC version of L4D sometime- the version I got won't let me go online with friends. I'll have to re-install it on my laptop then, whenever I get it back (Hopefully before trimester break. If not, then Easter break).

**Flyboy961: **Thank you- I thought it was actually pretty cool that you're creating a spin-off sort of thing from Code: Ascension. What happens now more often than not with K.V.K. is that I basically forget that she exists for days (due to not thinking of her for a long time), and when I do remember her, I often wonder if she had forgotten about me. I guess I was about as attached to her friendship as super-glue to another object, since I suppose she saved me from killing myself when I got my first wave of depression (2007-09). Also, I don't know what color your eyes are, so I omitted mention of it (for our group). Oh, and by the way, I'm thinking of adding more twists to the story- I was mulling over your comment you made a few months ago that sometimes my writings do seem like something out of a textbook. The lack of reviews is perfectly alright- I just find it weird that people review my stories where I hardly put any thought into it, compared to my longer stories.


	8. Dead Air

My apologies for the slight time confusion in the last chapter- I keep forgetting I'm not running on the 12 hour clock here.

The chapter title here was inspired by a campaign in "Left 4 Dead"- the campaign being one of my favorite levels within the game.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 6- Dead Air  
December 15  
18:37**

"Women" Commander Anthrax started in a grave voice, pushing a button that instantly created a holographic map of France in front of the briefing room.  
"And men!" someone in the back of the room shouted.  
"And men" Commander Anthrax conceded, nodding his head. "You soldiers are one of the remaining forces left in the world that is still alive and well. Our secret plan has gone out, and we have spotted forces being assembled in XANA's base. Just yesterday afternoon, our scouts have spotted several flying jets and managed to take them out before they could pose a danger to our camp. Now, our infiltrator and top informant, Blizzard, has informed us that a massive offensive has been launched and will be within two hundred kilometers of our base by twenty-two hundred hours." He continued, pressing another button that showed XANA's monsters' positions in relation to the base. The cluster of red blinking dots representing the monsters XANA had deployed was getting closer by the second. "There has also been a report of a large bandit coming our way, escorted by this offensive." Commander Anthrax said, pressing a button that changed into a three-dimensional representation of the bandit in question. "It is a prototype, but be careful- it is an extremely powerful device that is able to penetrate through our shield. Take it out before it can come within three hundred yards of this base camp. I want you soldiers to know that this will be a very dangerous mission, and there will undoubtedly be many a soldier's life that will be sacrificed. Nevertheless, I want you to give it your best shot, and show this machine who's the boss around here!" Commander Anthrax shouted, receiving standing ovation for his speech.

Commander Anthrax gave a short bow and left the front of the room, pressing the iconic Staples button as he left to give the soldiers time to prepare for battle. His pride on delivering such a rousing speech was short lived, however- he was concerned about the possibility of the mission failing miserably. Shaking the thought away, his confidence returned when his memory reminded him on how successful his pilots were despite the numerous disadvantages that seemed to stack up against them, much like a brick wall would.

[Page Break: Air Rage]

**19:56**

"Eat my wake turbulence" read the bumper sticker plastered on Thor's tail. Below that, sandwiched between two bumper stickers that read "Suck contrail" and "Subway- Pizza Marines" respectively, was an enlarged motor vehicle license plate that read "PB4UGO" in bold, black lettering. Thor's pilot proudly stood in front of the plane, helmet resting between the crook of an arm and her G-suit formatted for both high and low-altitude flying. Sliding in through the hatch, she closed the cockpit Plexiglas shielding and flashed a confident smile at Melissa, her nervous accompanying co-pilot. Hands immediately shot for the protective seat belts that intersected across each pilot's chest, fastening them securely. Fingers dancing over the instruments on the panel that contained the HUD, she punched in a set of coordinates before beginning the preliminary flight checklist with her copilot.

Meanwhile, General Ziggy was talking with Colonel John Sheppard, who was going to be flying in the mission due to his name being mistakenly put on the mission list when it was meant to be put on the list of people that were going to be fighting in the next mission.

"You can have her- she's a great plane." General Ziggy stated, looking at his plane with a sense of admiration that it held up against the numerous battles it fought.  
"You're going to let me keep the X.S.S. Schicksal?" John asked, raising an eyebrow at the prospect of finally having a jet of his own.  
"Sure, you can keep her." General Ziggy nodded, tossing him the digital key card he needed to activate the plane. "Group Headquarters is promoting me today and taking my name off of the lists of people that are going to fly missions because I went around again to successfully bomb XANA's fuel line the last time I was up in the air."  
"Thanks, man!" John exclaimed joyfully, running towards his newly obtained fighter jet, excited to test out the plane's features.

"Keep in formation, people. I don't want to have to chase after you." The squad leaders commanded their fellow airmen over the PA system installed in every fighter jet that the Carthaginians had upgraded to increase the jets' immunity against XANA's viruses' attacks.

"Stabilizer trim override, normal." Michelle stated; momentarily glancing upwards from her clipboard at the sound of her squad leader's voice.  
"APU generator switch, off." her copilot replied, flicking a switch to turn the engines on.

The planes moved into formation for take-off, their engines whirring into high-gear in preparation for their ascent. They taxied to the large runway pointing to the West, waiting for the go-ahead to take off. It only took a moment for the flight controllers to calculate that the planes were a safe distance from each other so they wouldn't crash while taking off. The go-ahead was quickly given to the Squadron leader, who passed it on to the other pilots waiting on the runway.

"Isolation valve, closed." her copilot called from behind Michelle, crossing off another listed command with a flick of a wrist.  
"Auto-brakes…maximum!" Michelle called, hastily stowing her clipboard in a nearby compartment and thrusting a lever forward.

The planes barreled down runway 27R, taking off with a mighty roar of the engines at 230 miles per hour. The fighter jets moved into the formation of a V- the standard military flight formation. Melissa gripped the secondary steering mechanism in case the autopilot went awry, mistrustful of the concept of the plane doing things on its own automatically- she preferred to be in command of the plane and dictate what would happen on her own time. Calmly and with confidence of her abilities, one of Melissa's fingers moved, and with a small flick of that same finger, flipped a switch that retracted the landing gear back into a compartment located on the bottom of the fighter jet. Being that the Sky Hawks were the first planes to take off; the ascent to twenty-five thousand feet was pretty much smooth sailing, with minimal chop that they had to fly through.

"Watch this" Michelle said, chuckling as she maneuvered the plane into her desired alignment. "I bet this will really piss him off."  
"Oh, no. Don't do that, please." Her copilot groaned as she felt the blood rush to her head.  
"Sierra Hotel 24, what are you doing?" Sky Hawk's squad leader asked over the PA, irritation obviously showing in his voice.  
"Why, I'm just expressing my reluctance to be here, sir." Michelle intoned with a bit of sarcasm at the formality. "I wouldn't have to do this if you just left my name off the mission sheet."  
"Sierra Hotel 24, this is Red Raptor. Stop flying your plane upside down this instant."  
"My plane's name is Thor, and no, I won't stop flying upside down, not until you be nice about it. Would it kill you to be a little polite?"  
"Airman, identify yourself."  
"You didn't say please." Michelle giggled, passing her copilot a sick bag.  
"I can report you to Group Headquarters, do you know that airman? Do you know who I am?" The squad leader asked as his voice rose in anger.  
"Attention pilots in Sky Hawks, we have a man heading this squadron that does not know who he is…"

Nevertheless, Thor was commanded into its normal position by its pilots, and the planes droned on in the sky, their radars ever sensitive for any type of enemies that might be heading in their direction. Once the other squads had caught up to the Sky Hawks, they ascended to forty-thousand feet and accelerated to a little above Mach 1, the anticipation of a large fight causing their breathing to hitch and their hands to twitch nervously. Sweat cascaded down their foreheads as beeping sounds filled each and every cabin- XANA's monsters had been sighted. The Squad Leaders calmly moved their jets into position and opened fire upon the monsters. The monsters retaliated with an offensive of their own as a barrage of lasers greeted the humans flying towards them.

Michelle hated flying behind the squad leaders. They liked to keep planes in tight formation and almost never took any evasive action, even when they were met with heavy resistance. Michelle was a lead bombardier that never flew in a straight line after taking off or touching down. Paranoia that everyone was trying to kill her had overrode order, and she responded by always maintaining evasive action, only to willingly crash Thor in a safer area when nobody was looking. That way, she could fulfill both missions-fight and still remain alive at the end of the day. Pilots loved flying behind Michelle- it gave them an excuse to miss their targets by several hundred feet, even with technologies that could accurately fire a missile at its designated target within several hundredths of an inch of its intended destination.

"Damn it!" The Squadron Leader cried out in frustration as another missile missed a Dragon- a four ton hulking metal monstrosity that was XANA's new monster- a invention named as the brainchild of XANA processing through multiple factors of what humans feared most. "All units, prepare a Fox 3 missile! We're going to have to push through with brute force."

The Dragon was three hundred and fifty feet long from the tip of its front cannon to its rear stabilizers and was capable of taking a remarkable amount of damage. It was a long, serpentine-like machine that could deliver devastating blasts from an energy cannon built into an opening that consisted its 'mouth', along with two smaller energy cannons that delivered a lesser extent of damage to its targets. Its body was made up of several segments connected together by metal joints that were heavily armored against attacks. It was capable of flight through the powerful engines mounted on the underside of its six wings positioned on various places on its fuselage. Even if four of its engines were destroyed, it was able to fly through the air without any problems, much like a regular two-engine plane could if one of its engines was disabled for some reason. The acid-green colored metal glinted in the remaining light, and the Dragon fired a powerful energy blast at its opponents.

"All units, open fire at the target!" The squad leader barked, the fighter jets responding by launching their Phoenix missiles at the Dragon.

Some of the missiles struck the energy blast, causing a vision-obscuring smoke to form. The other missiles made contact with the monster, causing smoke and fire to shoot out as the Dragon exploded from the large amount of damage inflicted upon it. However, just as the flaming wreckage was falling to the ground and the black smoke was clearing; another dragon flew to take its place, preparing a destructive energy blast.

"All units break formation, break formation, damn it!" The squad leader barked, the planes flying off in different directions just as the energy blast whizzed by them, nearly taking one fighter jet down in the process.  
"Yes!" Michelle hissed in the simple anticipation of battle, and relayed a set of orders to the pilots following behind her. "All units following behind me, Sierra Hotel 24, follow my lead."

With an aching howl of the engines, Michelle dived down, machine-gunning targets as her copilot called out their locations given to her by the jet's radar system.

"Michelle, you have a Flying Manta on your tail!" Melissa said, punching in a new set of commands.  
"Do a barrel roll!" Corporal Winters suggested helpfully, narrowly avoiding a laser himself.  
"Barrel rolling!" Michelle replied back, checking the radar for enemies following her.

Thor dived down and spun in a seemingly uncontrolled fall before rocketing upwards again, confusing the small monsters tailing the fighter jet. Six fighter jets followed behind her, narrowly evading Anti-aircraft fire from XANA's supporting monsters on the ground. A loud explosion above Thor rocked the plane back and forth as the force from the exploding plane collided with hers.

"Jesus H. Christ! Watch out for those exploding Hornets!" yelled Melissa as she tried not to panic.  
"This is all SNAFU! It's FUBAR!" she cried out, steering the plane away from the remains of the fighter jet. "Sierra Hotel 13 is down! I repeat; Sierra Hotel 13 is down!"  
"Hard Right!" Melissa yelled, instantly getting Michelle's attention.  
"This is it! Here we go!" Michelle yelled as she steered her plane to the right, narrowly missing the energy blast of a Dragon.

Thor zipped through the battlefield, the six fighter jets behind her doing all they could to keep up with her as she flew towards the crux of the mission's problem- the bandit. The bandit, in truth a flying bomb filled up to the brim with C-4 waiting to be detonated, towered over the monsters and fighter jets alike, nearly blocking the moonlight due to its immense size.

"Delta Foxtrot Alfa 8, do you read me?" Michelle asked, checking that the PA system was still functioning correctly.  
"Loud and clear, Sierra Hotel 24." Colonel Sheppard replied, soaring above an exploding monster.  
"That was some Sierra Hotel that you pulled back there! Bravo Zulu, man." Michelle commented, John smiling in response and straightening up in pride at her compliments. "Meet up with me and Delta Foxtrot Alfa 19. We're going to pull a little stunt." Michelle checked the remaining ammo reserves, frowning when she saw how much of it had been used. "Barrel boy!" she called to Corporal Winters. "Can you provide a distraction?"  
"Can do" he responded, tailing close behind them before breaking off and chasing away a squadron of Hornets.

"Sierra Hotel Units 23 and 25-29, disengage, disengage!" Melissa ordered, the six fighter jets following Thor flying away in different directions to counter XANA's offensive.

Colonel Sheppard and Captain Bill flew beside Michelle, their fighter jets' wings almost touching as they flew towards the bandit that posed a big threat to the safety of the remaining forces of humanity. Almost hugging the surface of the bandit, they dodged the lasers fired at them by the ship's defenses- an easy feat, considering that the ship was made to blow up once it reached its destination, instead of combating its potential attackers. As long as they flew close to the bandit, no monster would dare fire at them, for they were only programmed to protect the aircraft they were escorting and get rid of any interference they encountered along the way. However, the predicament of three of their enemies flying close to the ship they were assigned to protect clashed with their programmed directives.

"Boomer, I trust you have your little present ready?"  
"Present confirmed and ready to be deployed." Captain Bill answered.  
"On my mark…" said Michelle, Melissa preparing a missile launch.  
"Missiles ready" said John, arming a missile.  
"Ready when you are" affirmed Captain Bill.  
"We're going hot! Sierra Hotel 24!" Michelle screamed.  
"Delta Foxtrot Alfa 8!" John shouted.  
"Delta Foxtrot Alfa 19!" Bill yelled.  
"Fox 1!" they shouted in unison, the Sparrow missiles launching together and smashing at the same spot on the ship's protective covering.

The resulting explosions caused a gaping hole to be torn into the metal covering of the bandit. Shrapnel flew everywhere, causing the pilots to avoid the flying pieces of metal from being ingested by their engines' compressor blades. Black smoke billowed from the hole, a sure sign that they had breached the surface.

"I'm out of missiles!" Michelle said as they flew through the smoke.  
"About face!" shouted John as he prepared another missile for launch.  
"Bend over, here it comes again!" Bill shouted, pointing to the oncoming monsters.

A squadron of Hornets, accompanied by a Dragon, rapidly approached the trio. A flurry of bullets from the fighter jets' machine guns was exchanged with lasers being fired from the monsters. An energy blast from a Dragon slammed into one of Thor's wings, causing the aircraft to rock back and forth from the resulting shock. Shrill beeping sounds filled Thor's cabin as emergency warning signals flashed incessantly on the HUD. Instinctively, both pilots within Thor secured their oxygen masks to their face and attempted to calm their nerves as Thor plunged towards the ground below.

"Utilizing Horizontal stabilizers…" Melissa intoned as she rapidly switched from program to program. "Landing gear out…"  
"Decreasing speed to 250 miles per hour…" Michelle started to say, but blanched when she saw the ground rushing up to meet them. "Abort! Abort! Commence the Martin-Baker fan-club initiation!" Screams were heard over the closed-circuit PA system before static filled the channel where Thor's communications once was.

The plane slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash, taking out a few ground monsters built for Anti-Aircraft fire in the process, sending up a fireball as the remaining fuel in the plane combusted spontaneously. The plane was a complete wreck- everything was completely destroyed. The smoke pouring out of the flaming wreckage made it difficult for anyone flying above to discern whether the two pilots had escaped. However, if anybody was on the ground when the plane crash happened, they would have noticed two white specks floating from the sky- the parachutes on the ejected seats that had saved the pilots' life. The pilots unbuckled the straps holding them to the seat, leapt from the seats and rolled onto the ground, drawing their standard issue heavy pistols and proceeding to take out XANA's accompanying ground forces.

"Do you see them?" Captain Bill yelled over the PA system to his fellow airmen, flying over the spot where Thor had crashed and trying to shake off the pursuing monsters at the same time.  
"No" came the response from a fellow pilot in Sky Hawks.  
"Our first priority is finishing the mission" said the squad leader of Death From Above. "We'll count the casualties later."  
"Going around" Bill replied, maneuvering his plane to perform a horizontal U-turn, heading straight for the bandit once more. Colonel Sheppard flew behind him, protecting his plane from any monsters that tried to shoot him down from behind. "Initiating countdown…" The digital clock on the explosive-laden package began to count down from the thirty seconds it was programmed to have. "Dropping the present…" The box was dropped out of the compartment door on the bottom of the plane and into the hole created by the Phoenix missiles as Captain Bill flew over it.

The black-colored package landed inside of the hole, wedging between two steel girders that provided structural support to the bandit. Around it were packages of highly-explosive C-4- the weapon that XANA hoped to use to further his plans and destroy the last rebellious forces in the world had inadvertently become his stumbling block.

"Delivery successful! Let's get our asses out of here before this thing blows."

In response, the fighter jets flew away, leaving the monsters to their fate as they feebly tried to follow after them with their battle damaged wings. An explosion followed after them, instantly destroying the remaining monsters and sending a shockwave that caused the fighter jets to momentarily rock back and forth in the air before their pilots managed to regain stability again. The jets shot out of the black smoke and the chaos of destruction, triumphant in their mission.

Looking at the sky from below, lazily lying amongst the scrap metal remains of Tarantulas and Megatanks, Michelle smiled as she watched the explosion take place.

"Sierra Hotel, Captain. Sierra Hotel."

[Page Break]

The returning planes touched down safely, their pilots looking quite tired, but exchanging words of praise to one another.

"What's the stats?" Asked Colonel Sheppard, laying his helmet on the briefing table.  
"Of the one hundred and fifty planes that were sent out to battle, only eighty-three came back." Commander Anthrax replied. "Of the two hundred and five men that were sent out, we have 73 casualties- 49 men dead and the rest unaccounted for."  
"Do you know which pilots came back yet?"  
"No"

Colonel Sheppard stared at him straight in the eyes, causing Commander Anthrax to immediately think of some form of consolation.

"Don't worry son, we usually locate the unaccounted men within a few days."  
"Thanks…"  
"Don't mention it. We like to keep tabs on our men." Commander Anthrax flashed John a pleasant smile, but it did nothing to ease his nerves.

* * *

Outtake 2:

"All units, fire at will!" the squad leader shouted, firing another Phoenix missile at the Dragon. Airman Basic William Dunbar cried upon hearing the order.  
"Firing at Bill" Michelle affirmed, performing a vertical U-turn to meet Captain Bill head on.  
"Oh, god no!" Captain Bill moaned, putting his hands on his face.  
"Fox 2" Michelle intoned as she typed in a set of commands on the console near her right hand. Her copilot was in hysterics, creating quite a scene.

Instead of the Sidewinder missile detaching from Michelle's plane and smashing into Captain Bill's plane, the missile cap popped off to reveal a banner attached to a metal pole that clearly read "Gotcha!" in large dark blue lettering.

"I have quite the sadistic sense of humor, don't I?" Michelle chuckled as she flew away to fire a real missile at a Dragon nearby. Captain Bill grumbled in response and neatly decapitated a Flying Manta with machine-gun fire.

HUD- Heads Up Display


	9. Finding Fell

**Boomer**: Thank you for your review, I will keep those in mind, and I have slightly edited the story to accommodate the changes (though your first official review did get me a bit hyper when I was reading it on iLita). Being that I'm bored most of the time and trying to find something to occupy that time, I'm expanding the chapters on this story with subtle changes to the wording (It's either that, or listen to a college professor's 12 hour lecture about Einstein's relativity theorem on the DVD I recently received). Perhaps a sudden stroke of inspiration might hit you, or it might be my thought train crashing through your abode and leaving you with a rather large mess to clean up. [Continued at End of Chapter]

"It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." ~Mewtwo, "Mewtwo Strikes Back"

Some ideas and sequences were borrowed from Flyboy961's "Coming Home One Short" story, in order to make events coincide with each other. This was supposed to be a 2K word interlude, but I converted it into a chapter.

* * *

**Code: Ascension- Chapter 7- Finding Fell  
Somewhere in Southern France  
December 16, 2020  
00:37  
**

It was the single most beautiful thing Michelle had seen during this entire war. It was a small patch of forest surrounded by barren land, untainted by the destruction wrought on the world by XANA. By some huge coincidence, Thor had crashed near its location, along with its two pilots. After finishing off the remaining forces of XANA's ground forces, Melissa went right to work trying to find food for both of them, Michelle going off to find materials to build a shelter. It was a little past midnight, and they were exhausted, hardly finding anything besides sand and rocks.

"It's supposed to be negative twenty to negative twenty-five degrees Celsius tonight." Melissa said, hurriedly searching through the forest growth for edible plants or animals.  
"It's a good thing that our G-suits help us keep w… warm…" Michelle replied, kneeling down on the cracked, frozen mud where a small lake used to be.  
"You do realize that we'll keep warm if we share… body heat." Michelle edged away from Melissa slowly.  
"Sorry… I used to like hugging people… I don't do hugs anymore."  
"We don't have to hug each other… we just have to keep each other warm somehow… without it being too awkward if the rescue team managed to find us…"  
"Mhm…" Michelle sleepily replied, her eyelids growing heavy. It would be nice if she could sleep, recover from the stresses of the day.  
"Don't go to sleep!" Melissa shrieked, hitting Michelle's back in a panic. "You might never wake up again!"  
"Good…" Michelle mumbled, dropping a pile of sticks in a corner and going over to Thor's remains to scavenge what was left of the upside-down fighter jet.

Melissa shook her head and felt around in the dark, disappointed when she discovered that there was nothing in the area that could supply them with the necessary nutrients. Michelle slipped under the downed fighter jet, trying to see if there were any supplies that could be useful. Frowning at the extent of the damage, Michelle heaved a sigh of relief that they were able to escape the jet in time- if they waited a mere four or five seconds more, they could have already been dead. Squinting her eyes, she could barely make out the dark outlines of the interior of the aircraft. Groping around in the dark, she could feel through her gloves the extent of the damage from the crash. One hand struck a compartment door, and Michelle pulled it open, disappointed when she found that there was nothing inside. Grunting, she pulled herself up and began to search through what used to be the fighter jet's cockpit. Climbing through the smashed Plexiglas covering, she winced as a shard embedded itself into her side as she slipped in.

"Shit" Michelle grumbled, instinctively removing the shard and covering her wounded side with a gloved hand until it had stopped bleeding.

The cold temperature stung her skin through the opening in the G-suit. Ignoring the pain, she looked around, cursing the fact that there was no moonlight to aid her eyesight, since the plane had landed in an upside-down resting position as it crashed into the ground. Using her sense of touch, her free hand brushed against several compartment doors, which she opened one by one with a sense of hopefulness. Snarling in anger when one of the compartment doors was jammed, she cracked her knuckles and delivered punch after punch to the said door until it had given way and opened without further resistance. Pulling the items contained inside with fervor, she placed them in a pile before sorting through her finds.

"Pills here, ammo here, secondary weapons here, first aid here… fireproof emergency inflatable raft device thing here… …Why did they make this kind of inflatable raft fireproof anyway?" she mumbled to herself, raising an eyebrow in amusement when she found a slightly burnt dog's chew toy. "Grin… aids?" Michelle snorted at the corny name on the bottom of the toy, tossing it aside. "Grin aids! How the heck did that get in here?"

Continuing to search through the small pile, she sighed when she saw that there was nothing else that was useful to them.

Careful to avoid the sharp shards of the broken Plexiglas, Michelle dragged her finds over to Melissa, who looked at the assortment of objects with a curious expression.

"… We have a fireproof life raft?"

[Page Break: Retrieve]

**45****th**** Regiment Base Camp  
Technological Center/Building  
00:52**

"Sorry son, but without evidence, I can't clear you through Group Headquarters in order to receive special permission to find your friend…"

Commander Anthrax's words echoed through Captain Bill's mind as he furiously typed commands into a computer as he gathered evidence from the base's tech center. A picture taken by a light scout popped up on the computer screen, and Bill clicked on the image, feeling very much relieved when the picture enlarged to show the destruction of XANA's ground forces without the involvement of the fighter jets' involvement, purposefully or accidental. Excitement flooded all senses as he found more evidence pointing towards Thor's pilots' successful ejection. A few more clicks, and the photo evidence was being printed out to be shown to Commander Anthrax.

"Come on… come on…" Bill muttered as he waited impatiently for the color printer to finish printing the pictures. "I've got a friend to save…"

[Page Break: Randan]

**01:03**

"… Well, this certainly is awkward." Melissa stated.  
"Tell me about it." Michelle groaned.

After Michelle had inflated the raft, they decided to use it as a bed. However, they were disappointed to learn that there wasn't enough room for each person to stake their claim on one side in order to maintain appropriate private spacing- the raft was only designed for two people, since it would be the near exact number of passengers in a fighter jet. Side by side, they lay inside of the raft, silently fuming at the lack of space allotted to them and silently wishing that the other would move over a little. The blanket that had come with the raft was another issue- it was too small to be shared equally between two fully grown adults. Tempers rose inside the compact space of the raft, and they silently cursed the rescue teams for not being able to find them sooner.

"Move over a bit… you're squishing me." Melissa snapped, roughly shoving Michelle against a side of the bright orange raft.  
"You're invading my personal bubble" Michelle grumbled, slapping Melissa's hand away.  
"If you were a little smaller, then we wouldn't have this problem, would we?" Melissa snarled, rubbing her hurt hand.  
"Screw the world's obsession about looking good for other people. If the world didn't have the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of being as slim as they could, we wouldn't have this problem either- there would have been more space here."  
"Still, it would have helped if you lost a little more weight." Melissa pressed, continuing to push Michelle.  
"I'm perfectly content at being one hundred and thirty five pounds, thank you. I've been going to the gym to work on upper body strength for years, in case you didn't know. I'm not going to be an anorexic for you. Plus, wasn't it you that said that we had to share body heat in order to remain alive?"  
"That was then, and this is now. Obviously your exercise regimen hasn't done enough, you fat-."  
"That's it!" Michelle exclaimed, throwing herself at Melissa and aiming for her throat.

Melissa snarled and fought back with the viciousness of a wild animal, using her hands, as well as her legs to defend herself. A clawed hand scratched against Michelle at any place where her flesh was exposed, causing four jagged and bleeding lines to form along the length of the right side of the latter's neck. Michelle responded by clawing Melissa back. Melissa aimed a punch towards Michelle, but the latter broke the brunt of her assault by slapping the arm away. The fist, missing its original trajectory, collided with Michelle's solar plexus. Michelle growled, wincing in pain, and bit Melissa's arm savagely, who responded by slapping Michelle hard across the face. Holding one hand to the bruised cheek, Michelle fought back tears of anger as the attack continued to sting her face. With a primal yell, she retaliated against Melissa with a perfectly executed uppercut, causing the latter to fall against the raft with a thud. Angry and muttering a colorful blend of swears at her copilot, Michelle hopped out of the raft, tears streaming down her face, heading for the leaves that covered their supplies at the edge of the forest.

Melissa struggled to catch her breath, regaining her senses after it had been forcibly knocked into her by Michelle's punch. Uttering more swears, Michelle savagely tore off the leaf coverings and snatched the first aid kit and some ammunition that was covered in its fireproof storage compartment. Loading her heavy pistol with fresh ammo and replacing the clip, Michelle breathed heavily with rage as she took additional ammunition for her Heavy Pistol, just in case she had to deal with XANA's minions lurking around in the remaining forest. Melissa, scared of what Michelle might do next, shivered from both fear and the cold temperature as she continued to observe Michelle.

"Where… where are you going?" she asked, suddenly feeling repentant for the words she had said and the actions she had done mere moments ago.  
"Far away from you" Michelle snapped, slamming the ammunition case shut. "I don't want to see your mug anymore. This," Michelle started, drawing a line in the dirt near the forest and pointing at the part where the raft was. "This is your side. That," she continued, pointing to the forest. "That is my side. If you're trespassing, you _will_ be shot. If you're still alive, I'll shoot you again."  
"Michelle, I'm…"  
"Save your stupid apologies. Sorry does not mean anything to me anymore, not when people toss it around as carelessly as they do when they say that they love you." Michelle turned around to face Melissa, who was trying to get out of the raft and calm the other pilot down. "Sit your sorry ass down and stay put. Who knows, maybe you would be found before you get blasted to bits by the roaming monsters in these parts. I'm leaving. Goodnight." Michelle snapped as she walked into the forest.  
"Goodnight…" Melissa whispered as she watched Michelle's retreating back disappear into the darkness of the forest.

A solitary tear made its way down Melissa's cheek, lightly hitting the orange raft. She and Michelle had their fair share of arguments with each other before, but it had never escalated to this level. There was many a time when each of them got angry enough to leave each other feeling that they had lost the other, but this time, Melissa felt that she had lost Michelle for good. More tears trailed down Melissa's cheeks as she sunk back into the raft and cried herself to sleep.

[Page Break: Report]

**45****th**** Regiment Base Camp  
Group Headquarters  
01:20**

"I know she's alive. Permission to go rescue her" Captain Bill said as he slammed both hands on Commander Anthrax's desk, looking up from his haphazardly strewn papers.

"Well son, I can see your evidence, but I can't let you fly just yet." Commander Anthrax stated, putting the papers away in a labeled manila folder that now contained the evidence that Captain Bill had printed.  
"Why not, sir? It could be a matter of life or death her!"  
"Because Captain, the fighter jets are still being repaired with the little spare parts we have in storage, and the rescue team is over in Bologna, assisting the Italian army evacuate the city." Commander Anthrax explained, pointing to a map of Europe behind him. "It's not like every group in Europe has their own rescue team- we have to share the rescue teams evenly, which means that whenever we get a call from another part of Europe, we have to fly our boys out to where the call came from."  
"What is the nearest time I can fly out to get her?"

Commander Anthrax nodded gravely, tapping a few keys and bringing up the updated hanger maintenance schedule. Typing in Captain Bill's last name, he quickly looked over the list for his name before reading the statistics.

"Your plane is at a mere nine percent at being repaired." Commander Anthrax read, performing a few calculations. "You arrived at the base after fighting at approximately 22:00, and repairs were started at approximately 22:17. Every three hours, another nine percent is completed on average due to the sheer amount of planes that need to be repaired. It takes approximately ten minutes to fill your seven-thousand gallon tank with fuel. By my calculations, you can initiate a search and rescue tomorrow."*  
"So I'll probably have to fly sometime in the morning tomorrow."  
"Correct, if your request gets approved."  
"Is there anything I can do to make things go faster, or find Michelle quicker?"  
"I'm afraid not" Commander Anthrax sighed, reclining on his chair. "The rescue team is not scheduled to arrive until a little after six in the afternoon. I can send them immediately to their position after they refuel and change crews here."  
"I see. Thank you sir"  
"Have a bon-bon." Commander Anthrax said as he pushed the small box of chocolates to the young Captain. "I hear that chocolate is beneficial in many ways."

[Page Break: Regret]

**Somewhere in Southern France  
08:39  
**

Second Lieutenant Melissa Erickson paced nervously around the raft, looking up at the sky every now and then to check for any signs of potential rescuers or enemies that she had to fight off in her bid to stay alive. 'S.O.S.' was clearly spelled out on the sandy ground with rocks Melissa had collected earlier. Hopefully, the gray color of the rocks contrasted enough for any potential aerial assistance to read it as they passed by.

Her stomach growled loudly, reminding Melissa of its ever present need to be filled. Melissa sighed and rubbed her stomach in hopes that the gesture would somehow quiet it down. Turning around, Melissa looked at the forest wistfully and wished that her friend was alright and that the whole fight would blow over soon. Hopefully, the whole ordeal wouldn't end up being the counterpoint of their friendship. Part of her wanted to venture into the depths of the forest to look of her, but the other half wanted to stay put just in case some sort of rescue did fly by and land near her position. Casting one last sorrowful glance at the forest, she got up, not wanting to be a sitting duck. There were rocks to gather, and a message requesting for help to be re-enforced.

[Page Break: Resent]

**18:02**

A pair of dark colored eyes opened slowly, half-clouded with sleep. After leaving Melissa, sleep had evaded her until around noon. Even then, the two hour resting period was not enough for her body. Waking up from her one-hour nap, Michelle sighed and did not move from her current position- the lack of food was slowly sapping her energy and strength, and she was still tired from looking for food all day. Michelle groaned and turned over, sighing with relief as she heard the familiar sounds of bones cracking as she stretched. Sitting up and brushing the dirt off of her G-suit, Michelle picked up her heavy pistol and left the relative safety of the cave. Hunger was getting to her, and being that she did not eat much food in the last few days and that there was no water besides the small amount residing in the plant leaves combined with the lack of sleep Michelle had accumulated over several days prior to the mission, she began hallucinating.

The drone of rescue planes startled her into running into the relative safety of the trees. Thinking that it was some of XANA's aerial units, Michelle instinctively scrambled to the trees, clawing madly at the bark until she was able to safely climb up the trunk. Watching from the safety of the branches high off of the ground, she eyed every single object in the forest suspiciously, waiting until she felt it was safe. A splitting headache soon sent her into nearly losing her balance and crash onto the forest floor below. Groaning in pain, she held her head in between her hands until the headache had subsided, then breathed a sigh of relief, only to stiffen again as she heard someone or something move through the forest near the place where she was currently staking.

Ten figures moved through the forest, shining their flashlights everywhere in their bid to search for something, or someone. Though it was too dark to discern the figures' faces, Michelle could easily identify her friend's silhouette. Giving a low growl at what appeared to be her fiend's utter disrespect for boundaries, Michelle briefly considered leaping out of the trees and giving them all a good scare. However, the hallucinations and the splitting headache soon returned, reducing Michelle to cradling her head and quietly whimpering in pain. Eventually, the figures gave up searching for what they were looking for and moved on.

Michelle sighed in relief as both the hallucinations and the headache subsided momentarily, waiting a few minutes to see if Melissa and the mysterious men would come back again. Hearing the drone of engines go over her location and grow distant, Michelle slowly climbed down from her vantage point in the trees. Curling up into a small ball once she had arrived back in the more familiar surroundings of her cave, she looked outside with a sad expression, lightly chewing an arm. Her stomach rumbled and eventually grew silent as Michelle ignored it. She was hungry enough to eat anything now, and she figured that arms were not necessary for survival.

[Page Break: Determination]

**45****th**** Regiment Base Camp  
December 17  
10:21  
**

"What do you mean that you couldn't find her?" Bill snapped at the group of rescuers as they spoke with him in the Group Headquarters building.

"What we mean is that we were not able to locate her." The leader of the small group of rescuers replied patiently.  
"Are you sure you exhausted all possibilities of her location when you were rescuing Melissa?"

"You don't think we have a life? You don't think we have shit to do? I'm just one … human!" the leader shouted, still angry over the fact that he had not gotten a break since his return from the rescue mission earlier today.  
"I never said that I think that the rescue team members don't have a life." Bill calmly replied, both his tone and explanation seeming to pacify the enraged rescue leader a little. "If it would help, I'll go on a rescue mission in your place, so you don't have to do anything."  
"…Thanks, man…" the leader grunted, heading to his tent for some well-deserved rest.  
"Hang on Michelle, I'm coming…" Bill softly said, heading to the hangar.

[Page Break: Insanity]

**Southern France  
11:03  
**

Michelle cautiously sniffed a leaf before giving it a cautious lick and recoiling in disgust at the taste. Frowning, she started lightly chewing at the edges, she stopped when she heard the all-too familiar drone of a plane. A hand shot for the Heavy Pistol in response and she gripped it in terror. Hallucination had well taken over her senses, distorting her vision into making it seem as if everything was a danger, warping her sense of reality and perspective in the process. Looking up and focusing her vision to see what was between the tree leaves covering the majority of the sky, she blanched when she saw people jump out of the plane and roll on the ground nearby. Hissing in anger at the intrusion, she leveled her pistol at one of the five men that had jumped out of the plane.

In response, she found four pistols aimed at her, tracking her every move. One of the strange men came forward towards her, the latter edging away, locking eyes with his. The plane landed a little ways away from the edge of the forest, Michelle turning her attention away in mild interest. One of the rescue team members got impatient at the slow level of progress that the rescue was going at fired at Michelle's foot. The bullet missed, but it gave Michelle the provocation needed to fire back. Her bullet, however, had found its way into his leg, which made him double over in pain and swear loudly.

Although a command was issued for the other rescue members not to fire back, they ignored orders and did so anyway. Michelle snarled and ran away from them on all fours before getting up and running properly, clutching her gun as if it would save her life. Distantly, she thought she heard a familiar voice say her name, but although she wasn't sure, she did not want to risk her life by stopping. Someone cursed, and a loud bang was followed by a pain in her ankle unmatched by anything she had felt before. Staggering and slowly losing her balance, she fell forward, her head hitting a rock as her body slumped to the ground. A familiar face swam into her vision before she closed her eyes and everything went black.

"I told you to hold your fire." Bill snapped as he checked her pulse by pressing two fingers against one of her wrists. "Idiots…"

[Page Break: The Insane Asylum]

**45****th**** Regiment Base Camp  
Mercy Hospital  
16:25**

When Michelle woke up, the first thing she noticed was that the whole room was white. A G-tube hung from a metal rack nearby, feeding nutrients directly into her system while an IV was attached to her arm. Her injured foot had been put into a cast and suspended a foot off of the bed. Panic flooded through her veins when she realized that she did not know where she was. Something was wrapped tightly around her head. A hand trailed upwards and touched the wrappings that were used to stop the bleeding. Panicking, she clutched the light blue horse necklace that hung around her neck with her other hand, doffing it to take a better look at it.

"Where am I?" she murmured, looking wildly around and lightly clutching the necklace.  
"… She's just woken up, so she might still be out of it…" Doctor Nielson whispered to Captain Bill outside of the hospital room. "Just don't get her excited too quickly." Captain Bill nodded in response before slowly opening the door and entering the room.  
"How's it going?" Bill calmly asked, walking over to her bedside.  
"…Who are you?" Michelle asked, confused.  
"…Captain Bill"  
"Where's Catherine?" Michelle asked, gripping the horse necklace and still looking around the room.  
"Catherine's…"  
"Where is she?" Michelle asked, growing impatient. "Where's Commander Snow Weasel?"  
"I'm afraid that the person you're looking for is… dead…" Bill admitted quietly.  
"Catherine's not dead!" Michelle angrily argued. "Where is she?"

Captain Bill looked at her with alarm as she tried to get up. The heart monitor started beeping faster in response. The other hospitalized patients woke up from their nap due to the uproar and started to join in the commotion, loudly screaming.

"Catherine's not coming back…" Bill tried to reason as he tried to get Michelle to relax.  
"Catherine's not… Catherine! Catherine!" Michelle cried, struggling with the G-tube.  
"Michelle, you have to stop!" Bill shouted as he lightly pushed Michelle back.  
"Catherine! Catherine!" Michelle shouted as she tried to squirm out of Bill's grasp. "Let… go!"

Bill grunted and maintained his steady hold on Michelle, concerned when he saw the rapidly rising vital spikes.

"Fifteen ants on a red man's chest! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of stupid!"  
"What's going on here!" Doctor Neilson demanded as he burst through the door and saw the resulting chaos.  
"I see everything thrice!"  
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Bill asked as he held up two fingers with his free hand.  
"Three!"  
"…And now?" Bill asked as he held up four.  
"Three!"  
"By golly, she does see everything thrice…" one patient exclaimed.  
"The walls, the walls! Push back the walls!"  
"The walls, the walls! Push back the walls!" The patients echoed Michelle, giggling amongst themselves.

Bill hesitantly relinquished his hold on Michelle and pretended to push the walls back, breathing an inaudible sigh of relief when the patients started to calm down.

"Is this good enough for you?" he asked, smiling inwardly when Michelle nodded weakly and grinned at him in response.  
"That's it…" Doctor Nielson grumbled, fumbling for the needle that contained Propofol and inserting the drug into Michelle's IV.  
"Thank… you…" Michelle whispered as the drug started to take effect.

Her hand containing the necklace fell to the edge of the bed and loosened its grip as its owner relaxed in a drug-induced sleep. Captain Bill caught the necklace as it fell, staring at it in curiosity. The light reflected off of the stone pendant, adding to the simplistic beauty of the pendant.

[Page Break: Debrief]

**18:00**

"We've got Rubin, White, Wilson, Taylor, Carter, Turner, Barry, Jenkins, Sullivan, Price, Owens, Johnson, Payne…" Commander Anthrax recited as he read from the list of soldiers that were found alive when the rescue team searched the battlefield.  
"Just tell me if Commander Fell is on the list" John tiredly snapped, causing Commander Anthrax to momentarily look at him instead of looking at his clipboard.  
"Sorry son." Commander Anthrax conceded after taking a quick look at the list again. "She's either dead or MIA. We were able to rescue her assigned copilot yesterday, but she's not telling us anything."  
"Not anymore she's not." Sergeant Towser said, hearing the conversation as he was coming through the front door of Group Headquarters. "Doctor Neilson has just informed me that she's in the hospital."

[Page Break: Realization]

**18:12**

"It's not that I wanted to come back." Michelle explained, pointing to her plaster-cast foot once she woke up from her drug-induced sleep. "They had to shoot me in the foot in order to bring me back, since they had no other choice on how to get me back here."  
"… so, who's the guy next to you?" John asked, jerking his thumb in the direction of a guy in his mid-thirties with a similar wound.  
"He's the guy that shot my foot, so I shot his foot back. I was going to shoot his other foot, but I didn't want him to shoot his eye out when he was firing back." Michelle turned her head to her pillow and sneezed violently. "It's great here… I have food delivered to me so I don't have to get up."  
"That's good"  
"… you have to feel sorry for Stevens over there" Michelle said as she indicated to an ill Private on the other side of the room. "He has to keep falling on his face in order to have his meals delivered to him"  
"How do you feel?" Captain Bill asked, getting up from a chair placed nearby and walking over to her bedside, keeping the necklace well hidden in a pocket for safekeeping.  
"Pretty much like crap." Michelle mumbled as she adjusted herself to get into a more comfortable position. "How about you?"  
"Worried as hell" Captain Bill replied, chuckling. "Don't you dare scare me like that ever again."  
"I promise nothing" Michelle said, leaning back against the pillow.  
"Get out" Doctor Neilson snapped as he came into the room, impatiently waving the officers away. **"**She needs to rest."  
"Not until I've had a talk with Melissa." Michelle snapped, looking around the room. "Where is she anyway?"  
"Here I am" a small voice answered.

The four turned to look at the Melissa, who had refrained from revealing her presence until now.

"Michelle…" she whispered, her voice lowered almost to the point where they strained their ears just to hear her.

* * *

* I have no idea what the actual fuel capacity is for a fighter-bomber. Complicating matters is that the particular fighter bombers in question are made nine years from now.

Character Descriptions (See "Introduction") are updated as the story goes on to assist you in picturing them.

**Flyboy961: **You can try to re-instate a DocX connection again. You did nothing wrong when you brought it up- there are no rules against asking questions. What's weird is that the initials for my penname contain her initials in the exact places. Everything is pretty much fine on this side of the US. For the Merry Kissmas stories, I stopped writing after the fourth prompt because I was busy over the holidays. Now that it is about a month after Christmas, I feel no need to continue writing the prompts.

Outtake 3:  
"Now to get you back to base…" ~Flyboy961/Boomer

"No, please! I don't want to go!" Michelle cried, digging her fingers into the ground. "Don't make me!"  
"Come on, you're not a kid anymore…" Bill grunted as he struggles to drag Michelle back into camp.

Meanwhile… (Inspired by IsisMasshiro's "L4D - Kill Bill", of whom I have been a fan of because of the quality of her L4D fan artwork)

*XAA messes with Fly*  
*XAA stops mauling Fly for a moment and sits quietly on the digital ground, shaking her fur and scratching at her collar*  
*Attacks again and drags Fly backwards when he attempts to leave Carthage before stopping abruptly again and grooming herself*  
*Pounces on Fly when he attempts to leave again*

"Oh, for the love of… just kill me already!"

*XAA playfully swipes at his hair with a paw*


	10. Silent Strike

XAA (XAnA, XANAfied Animal Aelita): XANA's experiment gone horribly wrong, Aelita started out as a human with animalistic behavior, later turning into a wolf/husky with her [warped] human consciousness. She once destroyed Carthage while it was during the rebuilding stage (having been inadvertently burned to digital dust with misfired fireworks), but is loyal to XANA, often being seen doing some tasks for him. She will take orders from others, provided that they don't collide with her directives- serve and protect XANA, and treat humanity as if it were a new plaything. Her favorite toy is a pipe bomb-shaped chew toy (but her victims usually suffice as one if a chew toy isn't nearby).

3x the gratitude to **AelitaStones1 **for reviewing thrice! Gratitude is given to Beriothien for Beta Reading this!

Warning: The F-word is used here one and a half times. There are 214 commas in this chapter so far.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 8- Silent Strike  
Mercy Hospital  
December 21, 2020  
09:45**

It was there, sleek and gracefully dipping to the ground below at a painstakingly made angle. She was there in her wheelchair, impatiently waiting for the area to clear, coughing and clearing her throat in irritation. He was there in another wheelchair, waiting for her signal when she indicated that she was ready as she was waiting for the area to be cleared. The clock was not there, counting the seconds in some faraway place and not reminding them how much time had passed. The stream of people lessened as the nonexistent clock's minute hand passed over the number four, and nurses and doctors alike went into their respective patient rooms.

"Are you sure about this?" he whispered, leaning over her shoulder.  
"We did it in the airport with a baggage cart in Hong Kong, and nobody seemed to notice or care." She whispered back.  
"Are you ready?"  
"Yes"

Without another single word, they pushed off of the edge of the ramp and sped down, whooping in exhilaration as they raced each other. The ramp was long and, when properly used, was used to be available to wheelchair-bound patients who needed access to the rest of the building without using the bothersome stairwell. It was perfect for being used improperly- the newly cleaned flooring practically begging for some idiot to come around and leave skid marks all over it. …Or idiots, as Michelle and Joseph would be called; the latter having a small accident with a tank earlier in the morning when leaving for the training fields.

The wheelchairs continued to speed down the ramp, Joseph having to swerve to avoid colliding with a nurse, who was stepping out to retrieve items from the medicine cart. Michelle turned around so that she was facing backwards, laughing madly- the faint traces of insanity that still remained from the hallucinations. Tomorrow, Michelle was going to be discharged in order for the hospital to make way for more seriously injured soldiers, but she wasn't going to go without having a bit of fun first and messing with the doctors. Earlier today she had accidently taken off some wires that were attached to her body, scaring the doctors, as they had thought that her heart stopped beating. Pandemonium later broke out in the ward again when she declared that she saw everything thrice again and that there were ants on the pizza.

Michelle's uninjured foot unconsciously pressed down onto the wheelchair's brake lever. The wheelchair suddenly skidded and crashed into Joseph's, sending them both flying in the air. They landed in a pile, laughing at the curious expressions of the nurses and at the seemingly unfortunate event that had taken place. Michelle's laughter was cut short as she felt Joseph's weight rest on her injured leg. Wincing in pain, she snarled and shoved him off of her leg, shooting dirty looks at him as he stumbled away.

"That's it" Doctor Neilson grumbled, surveying the two as he came out of a patient's room after checking on the inhabitant inside. "No more wheelchairs for you from now on. I hope you like crutches."

Michelle did like crutches, as a matter of fact- it gave her an excuse to hit people that she didn't like and laugh at the fact that they couldn't hit an injured female back. She and Joseph spent the rest of the day hitting each other over the head while waiting for the discharge papers to be signed and driving the nurses crazy by pretending to be drunk and demanding urgent care immediately to take care of the 'little purple gremlins being chased by the Catnana'. Besides that, there was very little for the bed-bound patients to do to keep themselves entertained during their stay in the hospital.

Each officer not on active duty was required to censor letters that were collected and sent over the span of every two to three weeks then sign their name after censoring. The letters in question were the ones to be sent to friends and family that were divided by the war. The catch was that the family members and friends had to be in a fighting group where the army knew its location; otherwise the mail would obviously be undelivered. Before being sent, the letters were opened by the censoring officers and processed in order to take out any information that might be sensitive to the war effort before they were resealed and sent to the addresses printed on the envelope's front. They were disappointed to learn that the lives of the soldiers during the war were only slightly more interesting than that of the officers. During the time spent in the recovery ward, Michelle and Joseph found them too monotonous, and so started to invent games with them.

The markers they used were perfect for the job. A few days ago, Michelle and Joseph decided to black out every word except for the words 'and', 'too', 'but', and 'Ho-ho Beriberi'. Since nobody wrote 'Ho-ho Beriberi in any of the letters they censored, they wrote it everywhere else on the letters. The next day, they attacked the addresses, wiping out entire Regiments and Armies with careless flicks of their wrists. Joseph once blacked out everything in one of Private Kirk's letters except for the salutation "Dear Robert", and wrote "I yearn for you very much. I am leaving on a dangerous mission soon. I will write you the moment I get back. Sincerely, Wilma Eleli". Wilma Eleli never existed. Needless to say, Petty Officer Third Class Robert Kirk was sufficiently confused once he received the letter in Great Britain.

Sometimes, when things got boring, Joseph signed "Anderson Meriadoc" in the space that was allotted for the censor officer's name. When that grew monotonous, he signed his name as "Meriadoc Anderson". A CIA official infiltrated the group a few days later and pretended to be one of the new officers that were injured while being rescued, asking questions if anybody knew about a man named "Anderson Meriadoc" or a "Meriadoc Anderson". Everyone in the ward knew he was a CIA agent. He refused to censor letters after the first day- he found them too monotonous.

[Page Break]

**December 22, 2020  
01:43**

Someone walked cautiously through the ward, gripping a syringe filled with thick, blue-colored cleaning fluid and a combat knife. The ward's inhabitants breathed softly in their sleep, almost in unison. It was the music that played in the night, the simplicity of it being enough for a conscious person to join in the choir of the un-awoken dreamers. The polymorph snuck up to one of its victims, silently gazing to the person sleeping on the bed below. Long, dark hair flowed onto the pillow and spilled onto the sheets, shining brightly in the moonlight. With careful precision, the polymorph injected the cleaning fluid within the syringe into the IV, grimly smiling as the deed was done.

Her eyelids twitched as his footsteps reverberated across the ward, but did not open. A hand jerked a little as the poison began eating her away from the inside out. Her breathing slowed as the toxin was fully pumped into her system, wincing in discomfort. Within moments her entire system shut down, and she slid into a sleep that she would not wake up from. A nonexistent hand gripped the now-deceased human's hand and felt the flesh grow colder by the moment. The hand gripping the knife tightened its hold on the blade and rose before streaking downwards and slashing the wrist. Drawing blood from the wound, the polymorph dipped his fingers into the red liquid that pooled from the open wound and began to write on the wall, the bright red words clearly standing out on the white-painted wall.

Turning its attention elsewhere, it let its eyes wander around the ward, individually inspecting each and every potential victim for the night. The fresh, untainted blood coursing through their bodies was ripe for the picking. Smirking to itself, it twirled the blade in its hand before it expertly caught it by the handle. The bloodied knife shone in the moonlight that streamed through the open window before it was thrown towards another patient. He never had a chance to scream- the knife easily cut through his flesh and pierced one of his lungs.

Awakening due to the impact in a drug-induced stupor, the patient took a moment to realize that he was in trouble as the knife protruded from his torso. The remaining sedative in his body made his every movement more sluggish- a crucial factor in small window of time in the events that were disastrously out of the patient's favor. The heart monitor continually displayed the patient's struggle for life, rapidly beeping and triggering a silent alarm. Frowning in annoyance, XANA's polymorphic specter willed its influence through the computer systems to block the silent alarm from being fully noticed by the staff.

General Warren's hands pawed at the knife, fruitlessly trying to grab it and pull it out of his body. The injured lung was already drowning in blood, and the lack of oxygen was already affecting his brain. General Warren began to hyperventilate and flail about uselessly- his body's response to its predicament and its attempt at self-preservation. The polymorph watched in amusement as it listened to his bloody gurgles- the very essence of what it considered to be the most beautiful music in the world. Its sharpened claws were dripping with blood, pooling on the floor. Two mere moments later, General Warren's brain shut down from the lack of oxygen. As his body grew limp and his ragged breathing stilled, the only sound that were present in the room besides the drone of the heart monitor failing to recognize a heart beat was the specter's quiet laughter.

**07:16  
**

The nurses grumbled as they waited for the investigators to finish taking pictures so that he could order the LPNs to clean the bloodied wall for them. Before them, a mere four feet away, the investigator that had examined Private Thompson's body was silently gazing at the bloodied wall, trying to figure out what the last phrase meant for the umpteenth time.

"For your lives, you have to fight, for I strike in the night to put fear of XANA's might. Beware of those dressed in light." The investigator read, shaking his head at the riddle. "If I had a nickel every time this happened…"

Several clicks of a camera later, and the investigator stepped back from the scene of the crime, allowing the doctors to place white sheets over the bodies. The bodies were placed onto gurneys and then wheeled to the hospital's morgue for storage until further examination of the bloodied forms of the deceased humans was completed. A funeral ceremony respecting the lives of soldiers and officers alike would be held that day before the remnants of the bodies would be buried, with the exception of the soldiers murdered by the polymorphic specter.

The investigator gave a curt nod at the nurses as a gesture that they were now able to resume their normal duties and left for Group Headquarters. There were approximately nine casualties this time- six were dead, and the rest were mortally wounded. Sighing in resignation, he entered Group Headquarters after passing through the required verification process and placed the camera on Commander Anthrax's desk. The latter was away on his usual security inspection for the parameters of the energy shielding. Unlocking a cabinet, he placed the camera inside before shutting and locking the camera inside- it could not be sabotaged so easily once placed inside. Commander Anthrax usually checked that cabinet for important files that needed to be viewed, anyway. Whistling a tune, he bade Sergeant Towser a good morning, just as the latter was walking through the doors.

**12:32  
**

The Regiment was quieter than usual today, and it was not just because of the soldiers' somber reaction towards the recent killings in Mercy Hospital. Commander Anthrax, finishing his inspection of the energy shield's parameter, had not gotten wind of the news yet. 'How ironic…' Commander Anthrax thought as he drove along the narrow road that divided the camp into two equal parts. 'A hospital, a place of healing, could be used for evil deeds. Where its name was blatantly disregarded, and the very definition of mercy was changed from sympathy for another into mercy killing.' As he passed by, he noted the pale faces and the stick-thin bodies of the soldiers from malnutrition. They looked like they were living ghosts. One could wonder if they were about to collapse into a pile of dust where they stood at any moment and then be blown into thousands of floating pieces by a passing wind.

The gauntlet hidden by his long sleeves beeped, reminding him of the messages that he had ignored for the past four hours or so. Growling in irritation, he pulled over to the side and tapped on the light blue interface of the gauntlet, the gadget obeying by listing the messages that he had recently received. His eyes widened upon receiving the news and he stomped on the gas pedal, the jeep starting with a sudden jerk and speeding off towards Mercy Hospital.

"What the hell happened here!" he demanded, glaring at medical teams and patients alike once he had gotten through the security checkpoints.

"Sir, it appears that there was a-"  
"I know that!" Commander Anthrax snapped, pointing the gauntlet on his arm. "I got a message from Detective Leonard a few hours ago that I didn't read until now. I want you to give me the list of everyone that has passed through the security checkpoints of this building from the past seventy-two hours."

"We… don't keep lists of people that come and go to and from this building sir."  
"Then give me the surveillance tapes from the security cameras!" Commander Anthrax snapped angrily.  
"We don't have any security cameras, sir."  
"What the-! Who is in charge of the damn security in this Regiment!"  
"You are, sir. You didn't approve the request for security cameras we sent in last month, since you thought it would be a waste of time and the energy from our reserves." Commander Anthrax grew red in the face from both anger and embarrassment as he heard this.  
"FFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-"

The phone rang loudly in the room, obscuring the rest of the expletive and saving the ears of patients, officers, and doctors alike. The Med team leader used the phone call as an excuse to move as far as away from the still-cursing commander and answered it, listening to the caller's short explanation and request.

"Sir, Detective Leonard is calling to ask if you have received the evidence of the crime." The Med team leader said, standing in between the two, interrupting Commander Anthrax in the middle of his swearing.  
"What evidence?" Commander Anthrax grumbled, turning away from the medics.  
"The camera near your main PC, sir" Commander Anthrax turned around, surprised.  
"Not near 'Hands-Off'?"  
"No sir"

"Very well, then" Commander Anthrax replied, heading out of the room. Only when the door slam shut behind him did he loudly exclaim "I'm surrounded by idiots!", causing patients and medical staff alike to shoot dirty looks in his direction.

[Page Break]

**13:24  
**

"The house shook when I walked! When I did the Cha-Cha Slide, Kiwi probably thought an earthquake was happening! I was flung into the atmosphere a million times as an airline pilot, but what got my leg into a cast? A tiny bullet, that's what!" Michelle complained, using one her crutches as a prop for her injured leg.  
"I have to micturate" Joseph replied as he wrote 'Potata' on an outgoing letter, bored from censoring messages all day.  
"Then pee where you sit, for all I care" Michelle snorted, picking up a small bag of trail mix.  
"Never mind… I don't have to anymore…" Joseph replied, using his dagger as a letter opener.

Michelle suddenly laughed when she saw an M&M in the miniscule bag of 'Winston's Trail Mix- Super Mixes for Super Humans'.

"Oh my goodness, Kiwi!" Michelle breathed, holding up the small, blue-coated candy for viewing. "I got Kiwi to stand up on his hind legs only several times, just by holding an M&M from the top of his cage. He always had a soft spot for chocolate…"

Before Joseph could say something in reply, the PA system crackled to life.

"All able-bodied officers soldiers; get your asses here on the double!" Sergeant Towser barked, not sounding pleased at all.

'Here', used in this part of the story, meant Group Headquarters, instead of the usual meeting place in the mess hall- they were serving sardines and anchovies, and the place stunk to high heaven.

"Gentlemen, an important issue is at hand!" Sergeant Towser declared once the six hundred and eighty-three soldiers and officers crammed into the small space allotted by the building. "Does this thing look crooked?" he asked, pointing to the framed picture of himself behind him. A collective murmur of disapproval rippled through the crowd- it was obvious that this 'important' meeting was just going to be another humongous waste of time.

Commander Anthrax stepped forward and pretended to inspect it with a serious face. A wry grin crept onto his face, and with one hand, he reached forward and tilted the picture to the right at a forty-five degree angle.

"Now it does" Commander Anthrax said, chuckling merrily as he stepped offstage.  
"Well thanks for nothing!" Sergeant Towser called angrily after Commander Matthew Anthrax's retreating back. "Imbecile…" he muttered to himself.

The painting, which had been disturbed from its center of balance, tipped forward and smashed onto the stage. The glass shattered with a loud tinkling sound, sending shards flying over the wooden platform. Sergeant Mark Towser gave a heavy sigh and did not bother to look behind him to know what had just happened. A balding janitor in his middle ages came forward with a broom and started to clean the mess up with a sigh, muttering something about 'putting the morons in charge instead of the ones with any form of sense'.

"As I was saying, Group Headquarters has decided to move the mission planned for Christmas Eve today" Sergeant Towser said, ignoring the janitor cleaning the broken glass behind him. "The coordinates for your target have already been programmed into the fighter jets that we hope you won't destroy this time. We wish you luck… blah, blah, blah." Sergeant Towser said as he leaned on the podium. "Please give a hand for a special guest from an army base near the cannon site who will debrief you on your new assignment and… whatever" Sergeant Towser groaned as he stood straight up and departed from the stage to sit with the rest of the audience.

The guest in question was a well-dressed man of forty-three, who wore a black suit and had his hat on his head at a weird angle.

"Greetings to you all" the visitor warmly said, earning himself a few mumbled greetings from the audience. "My name is changed daily. Today, you may call me…" he said as he pulled out a small electronic device from his front pocket, groaning when he saw the words displayed on the screen. "Cutesy-Wootsy Huggle Fluffkins"*

The audience let out a peal of laughter at the humorous code name. Cutesy-Wootsy Huggle Fluffkins was not pleased, though the expression on his face plainly said that he was not new to this kind of reaction. Sergeant Towser laughed the loudest and used the name as an excuse to hit Commander Anthrax on the back for breaking his picture earlier. Cutesy waited for the laughter to die down before he cleared his throat and continued the debriefing in a less confident voice. The audience, however, hardly paid attention to his speech. All they had in mind was blowing targets up and pissing their Squad Leaders off by not staying in formation.

"Great, not again" Colonel Sheppard mumbled.  
"He wants sixty-five missions" Joseph imitated Commander Anthrax in a nasally voice.  
"What? Sixty-five!" Second Lieutenant Melissa Erickson angrily exclaimed.  
"Will you fly with me on the next mission I will fly when I get off medical leave?" Michelle innocently asked.  
"Shelly, I nearly got killed the last time I flew with you." Michelle threw Melissa a dirty look at the nickname.  
"I'll fly with you... ooh… ooh… I'll fly with you!" Joseph sang, Michelle imitating the music in the background by loudly humming.  
"What the-?"  
"Run like hell!" Joseph loudly commanded, noticing that the speaker had stopped talking.

Indeed, now that the meeting had concluded, there was a mad rush to the door. Usually Doctor Nielson got two or three patients that were caught in the stampede every time there was a meeting. Laughing at the insanity, the siblings disappeared into the crowd. Somebody kicked the back of Michelle's injured leg, and Michelle whacked the offending soldier on the head in response, the two scowling at each other. The angered soldier harshly yelled something at Michelle, who shrugged it off with a grin.

"So you're saying I'm a female dog. Dogs bark. Bark is on trees, which is a part of nature. Nature is beautiful. Thank you for the compliment."

The soldier, red-faced with rage, gave Michelle the finger, which she shielded from view from everyone else by holding her other hand in front of the offending hand. Michelle laughed harder in response.

"Yeah, go fuck yourself" Michelle replied dismissively before walking away from the thoroughly enraged PFC. "I don't give anything about what other people think of me. I'm only nice to people who are nice to me."  
"Did Tim teach you that too?" Joseph asked, running beside her.  
"Yeah" Michelle laughed, "You would think that not being schooled in a public school would have not made us potty-mouths."  
"Pretty much" Joseph replied. "Swear words were thrown around so frequently behind the teachers' backs that it no longer hurt when one person said them to another.  
"Think they're going to realize that?"  
"Not a chance"

[Page Break]

**17:32  
**

Joseph snuck around the camp, muttering a slightly enhanced version of a tune he had heard a few years prior.

"Oh, be careful of what you say, or you'll give yourself away! Odds are you will never live to see tomorrow! Secret Asian man! Secret Asian man! Yeah, he's giving you a number and taking away your name!"

Pausing at the edge of the airfield, he mimicked an air guitar solo before stopping abruptly when airmen were giving him curious looks.

"What did I do?" he asked innocently, inwardly smiling when he saw them turn away and continue with their work.

Humming, he reached "Denali", the fighter jet he prized beyond almost anything else. The fighter jet easily moved swiftly through the air and he had specifically requested the mechanics to install winglets, just for the heck of it. Although he had just graduated from college instead of enlisting before the war broke out, he was eager to actually handle guns and test his knowledge of them. However, he soon realized that war was not all guns and glory. Although he would not tell anyone why, those who were close to him had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with seeing too many of his friends die too soon.

Climbing in the cockpit, he allowed himself a few precious moments to himself- something that he rarely got often between the hustle and bustle with each passing day. Fiddling with the controls, he pressed a series of buttons, to which a song was playing.

"Aw, sweet! The radio works!" he exulted, turning up the volume to blast the music through the built-in sound system.

« Ces soirée la! On drague on branche toi-même tu sais pourquoi, pour qu'on finesse ensemble toi et moi! Qu'on aime tous ces soirée la! »

"All units, this is Squad Leader Whiskey Romeo Sierra Hotel 3 4. Please prepare for takeoff"  
"Aye, aye, Captain" Joseph replied, pushing the PA button to make an announcement to all air units. "Ladies and Ruffians, we are about to taxi in preparation to take off. Please put your seat back to the upright position and secure your tray table. Now, we will take a moment to review the safety procedures on the card in your seat pocket. Please turn to page-"

"Delta Bravo 2 1, please refrain from making squadron-wide announcements unless ordered to"

"Jeremie, I sure hope you know what you're doing" Aelita said over the PA system, fiddling with the controls of her fighter jet.  
"Don't worry Aelita; I'm sure that this will work out" Jeremie responded in the most soothing voice he could muster, trying to calm his own nerves at the same time.

The planes slowly moved into formation and rocketed into the air, filling the sky with the drone of airplane engines. The setting sun shone upon the metal birds, the fiery wrath of the star burning the very air they were flying through. The planes cut through the air like a knife through hot butter, speeding off towards their destination once the other squads caught up to them. Switching to night vision mode, the pilots gasped in horror as they saw thousands of white streaks flashing towards them.

* * *

Deleted Script:

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Charlie whispered to Joseph, who was struggling to maintain control of the three-ton metal contraption.  
"Of course I know where I'm going- to crush some Tarantulas!" Joseph snapped back, adjusting mechanisms so the tank would navigate through the base camp. "Hopefully, everyone's smart enough to get out of a tank's way."

CRUNCH!

"What was that?" Charlie asked nervously, opening the hatch and looking behind the tank.  
"I don't know. I can't see anything. That's why you're manning the radar and calling things out for me." Joseph replied.  
"Hey do you, by any chance, know who owns the tent that's covered in colorful paint slashes?"  
"Err… yes… Captain Bill does"  
"You owe him a new tent"

-  
My apologies, it's the pick-on-Captain-Bill trimester. Besides that, I'm actively trying to kill my OC.

What XAnA? You killed her. …Technically your Snickers clones killed her, but you created them, so the responsibility falls on your shoulders. I'll put the fight scene in another chapter, since I have not updated this story for about a month. Plus, it's about 5K words already, and I didn't want to bore people with it.

Beriothien, you pointed out that the people that came in through the hospital would need their access cards, and therefore you could see who the murderer was. The problem is, you can't, even though you have the ID data of the cards and the names of their owners. *sniggers*

So… now that I've thrown in a few murders, you have new clues. Who is it? Any questions can be redirected to my Tumblr account- one of the only accounts where I actually remember my password (but I disabled the anonymous choice so I can flame flamers back).

No, I'm not going to mic spam "I'm the Invisible Man" for the French polymorphic spy. I'll let the Team Fortress 2 fans do that.

* Oh my Gandhi! It's Changed Daily from 'The Secret Show'!

"L'amour Toujours (I'll Fly with You)" - Gigi D'Agostino  
"Ces Soirée La" – Yannick  
I should write the names of the songs I listen to while writing this story. The playlist has gotten quite extensive, actually.


	11. Clip the Wings

AN: Oh, there's a lot of cursing in here, not that it should come as a surprise. I've gotten the idea from toying around with an M-rated fanfiction I was working on (rated M, because I actually attempt to have all the original warriors killed by a mass murderer, with all the nice, gory details put in).

Thanks guys, for making this my fourth highest fanfiction, in terms of views (ASOUA leads the pack with 888 views, with ARMA and Code: Apocalypse following with a difference of less than 20 views! I might not retire from writing after all…

I'm going to write more scenes for the actual CL characters instead of the OCs here, since I kind of diverted attention from them in my past chapters. …Why do I feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by saying the American military alphabet instead of the French one (ex: Delta, Alfa, Foxtrot, Sierra, etc.)?

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 9- Clip the Wings**  
**December 23, 2020**  
**17:32**

"Fuck!" David screamed as he watched his missile fire streak by the Dragon that was tailing him for the past five minutes. "Piece of shit won't give me five fucking minutes to relax!"  
"No shit, Sherlock!" Melissa Erickson snapped back as she slammed her palm down onto the panel to activate the missile targeting system. "What the hell did you expect when the military dragged your pretty ass here?"

A blue panel appeared in front of Melissa with a red panning indicator that brightly flashed and sent rapid beeping sounds throughout the cabin, indicating that it finally locked on an enemy target.

"Fuck off" she muttered to the monster as she flipped open the lid on a panel, revealing a small green button. "Bitches go boom, baby!" she exclaimed as she pressed the button; the panel flashed red as the missile armed itself and detached from the fighter jet.

A missile streaked through the air, pursuing its target relentlessly as the latter attempted to escape its impending doom. The Flying Manta screeched in agony as the missile collided with the black Eye-of-XANA on its back before shattering into a thousand pieces in a fiery explosion of light and sound. Melissa smirked in triumph before returning to battle, noticing a familiar face as a fellow pilot navigated his plane into a series of barrel rolls to avoid laser fire.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Melissa sped away from him in the opposite direction, unleashing machine-gun fire at random enemy targets.

"Alright, you're dead; who's next?" she taunted, nosing her plane upward to assist a fellow soldier.

Smirking as she took down a string of exploding hornets without suffering critical damage, Melissa fearlessly glared at an oncoming monster.

[Page Break]

**18:03**

Corporal Winters looked through the Plexiglas windshield, smirking as he saw that he was directly flying above one of the mentioned targets from approximately two weeks ago that the squadrons had failed to bomb. Nodding to his copilot, the latter relayed a short message to following aircraft in an attempt to bomb XANA's fuel lines.

In truth, Joseph could care less if the bombs hit the target, as long as they hit something that would at least impede XANA's progress. Since hitting the exact target was too much of a hassle, Joseph prided himself on bombing targets that were essential to the original targets, much like fuel lines leading to XANA's power source instead of striking the power source itself.

"We're gonna have fun with this thing!" Joseph declared, watching the green dots on his radar grow close to his location, but frowning slightly when he saw red triangles following his allies. "Are you fucking insane!" he shouted, nosing his plane towards the ground. "Who… the fuck… invited these bastards… to the freaking party?"  
"Airman, identify yourself now. This is Delta Foxtrot Alfa niner-niner."  
"This is Corporal Joseph Winters," he replied, fiddling with the controls. "Bomb bay doors open!" he shouted to his copilot, who worked furiously on calling up defense mechanisms to divert the monsters' attention and release the bombs.

Joseph snarled as laser fire forced him to divert from his intended path and concentrate only on staying in the air as long as he can. Joseph's copilot silently released the bombs; the mechanisms holding in place allowing gravity to take its course. The fighter jets following behind Joseph released their bombs as they swerved to avoid contact with unwanted damage.

"Did we hit it?" one of the younger airmen inquired as she activated the rear defense mechanisms. "Did the bombs destroy it?"  
"I don't know. I was getting bounced up and down due to enemy fire." The senior airman responded through the radio patch. "I didn't see a damn thing"  
"What bombs?" Corporal Winters asked, whose sole focus was staying alive.  
"What target?" added his copilot, too busy dealing with the damage indicators that were flashing wildly with red lights.  
"Oh, well. What the hell" the senior airman grumbled, giving a short glance towards Colonel Sheppard's fighter jet as the latter easily nailed the target with a Phoenix missile, sending a plume of fire and black smoke into the sky. "Pretty damn impressive"

[Page Break]

**18:29**

Aelita could hardly contain her frustration as one particularly troublesome Hunter tailed her, continually unleashing weapon fire in her direction to keep her distracted. Although it was a relatively small monster, only coming up to slightly less than two feet in height, it made up for the lack of defense by using its agility to coyly dodge the projectiles launched at it. The dark blue metal made it almost impossible to detect if pilots had to rely on their sight only, but thankfully, navigational and detection systems had improved enough to have a backup installed as a backup to the backup for the primary detection systems. This triple navi-detect system served as a tool that was treasured by pilots seeking precision to the nearest hundred thousandths of a degree.

Quietly analyzing the situation, she determined that the only weakness the Hunter had was that since it was small, it could not follow a faster aerial object or coordinate with it efficiently, thereby making it an easy target if she managed to confound it for a few seconds. A sly smile played upon her lips as she relayed to Jeremie a set of instructions, all in a secret code only known between them. Jeremie, upon hearing the coded algorithm, flew directly below the Hunter. Aelita rocketed upwards and proceeded to perform a series of complex aerial maneuvers to distract the Hunter from Jeremie's oncoming attack.

A bright beam of purple light emanated from Jeremie's plane and slammed into the Hunter, causing it to loudly shriek and write in pain. The force was too great- the aura fired from Jeremie's plane knocked the monster back a few feet and held the Hunter in place as Aelita climbed several hundred feet in preparation for a dive. The Hunter screeched angrily and slashed with its wings in Jeremie's direction, howling in frustration that the purple aura was crippling it and weakening its defenses by slowly dismantling it piece by piece.

A glint of metal flashed from above, and suddenly Aelita was streaking towards Jeremie's direction in what appeared to be a suicidal move. A flick of her wrists was all it took to change what the apparent fate would turn out to be- her plane rammed into the Hunter dead on, causing metal parts to fly in every direction. Aelita smirked at the Hunter's last echoing cries of pain crackling through the monster's speaker system before varnishing a toothy smile towards Jeremie.

"Do you see why I chose the option to have extra fortification on the front of my plane?" Aelita teasingly asked Jeremie as she pulled up and flew beside him.  
"So you can scare me half to death?" Jeremie replied, his heart still pounding from the near miss from what would have resulted in a fatal collision.  
"Now why would I do that?" Aelita innocently asked before giving a nervous laugh and destroying an Assassin with a short burst of fire.

Jeremie allowed himself a small smile at Aelita's antics before turning his attention to his assigned target. Looking up through the windshield, he could see a colossal group of buildings coming into view. The dark, sinister shapes contrasted against the near-blinding lights provided by the explosions made by missiles striking against XANA's minions, seemingly giving off an ominous aura to those who looked upon it.

"Damn it all to hell!" he distantly heard a fellow pilot shout, though he wasn't paying too much attention on what was happening around him.

He was drawn to the centermost building, a small speck of metal attracted to a gigantic magnet that was unarguably the center of Jeremie's attention. His breathing hitched as he saw a long, tube like structure extending from one of the buildings. Grooves ran across the polished silver metal, pulsing bright red with energy. On the structure were hundreds, maybe thousands of worker drones, single-mindedly performing the only task they were appointed with doing- maintain and continue the construction of the energy cannon and defend it against any potential attackers.

One of the beings looked up, its lens immediately focusing on Jeremie's plane. A series of clicks and whirs were all it took to convey a warning message to its fellow robots. Like the game of telephone, the message ran through the group of monsters until it reached a group of tarantulas positioned there for Anti-Aerial attacks.

Roaring loudly in preparation for battle, the Tarantulas opened fire on Jeremie's ship, forcing Jeremie to execute a series of evasive maneuvers to avoid getting shot out of the air at point-blank range.

"Oh, crap!" Jeremie shouted, swerving to the left as he saw a group of approaching dark-colored Flying Mantas. "I need Winged Avenger here, right now!"  
"Ready" was the response from the aforementioned pilot.  
"I need an airstrike now!" Jeremie shouted, performing a hairpin swerve to attempt to shake the Flying Manta from his tail.  
"Give me your damn coordinates!" Avenger yelled back.  
"Then give me a fucking minute!" Jeremie uncharacteristically replied, frustrated at the lack of progress made.

Jeremie swiped his hand on the electronic panel on his dashboard, before slamming his palm onto its surface. The panel beeped in recognition and sent an encrypted stream of data into the air, which could only be recognized and decoded by the Regiment's aerial force.

Avenger soared through the sky a little above Mach 1, using the extra clips on his primary weapon to blast through monsters attempting to interfere with his mission.

"Get out of my damn way!" he roared.

A small beep diverted his attention momentarily to the cockpit controls. Fingers dancing over the controls, he easily decoded the message and read over the coordinates before quickly plugging them into his navigational systems and calculating the distance between them.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" he yelled, partly because of the wild exhilaration he felt from the simple task of blowing enemies up, as if it were a virtual reality game.

Avenger shot through billowing clouds of smoke caused by downed planes and monsters, momentarily causing his engines to stop functioning.* Avenger's plane drifted for a few seconds before rumbles shook through the fuselage. A burst of fire shot out of the exhaust hole before the engines roared into life once more, launching the pilot through the chaos.

Zooming over the battle scene, Avenger could see the darting figure of Jeremie's plane weaving through the battle, desperately trying to evade Anti-aircraft fire from both the Flying Mantas and the Tarantulas assigned as ground support.

"Belpois, I need you and you other rookies to haul ass and get yourself out of my firing range" Avenger instructed, preparing his assault.  
"Where isn't your firing range?" Jeremie shouted back, loudly crying out in surprise as a laser slamming into his plane, burning off part of the stabilizers on his plane's tail.  
"Just get out of here" Avenger snapped tiredly, rocketing upwards until he reached an altitude of about forty five thousand feet. "You're carrying a ton of explosives, and I would really hate it if you get blown up; it would be too messy"

Jeremie nodded his head and complied with his orders, temporarily leaving the target's area to assist Aelita in fending off the barrage of fire from the supporting Tarantulas strewn across the battlefield.

"Cripes" Jeremie remarked, executing a barrel roll while using his machine guns to return fire at his 'fan club'. "This would be so much easier if we were doing this over water. That way, we could have naval support, and there would be a chance of survival if we were hurtling to the ground"  
"I know" Aelita replied through gritted teeth, rapidly going through the various damage indications piling up on her dashboard panel.

Avenger streaked downwards towards the swarm of monsters, rapidly executing barrel rolls to increase his momentum.

"Eat this!" he shouted, slamming his palm down on the light blue panel mere inches from him.

Instantly, the metal coverings on his wings slid back to reveal an impressive display of arsenal. Red crosshairs flashed onto the screen as the computer systems instantly detected enemy combatants, sending a signal to arm the missiles in preparation for launch at the same time. All ten missiles launched simultaneously, slamming into the monsters without fail. Flames and shrapnel shot from all directions as the missiles fragmented to exact maximum damage towards the targeted monsters, as well as any surrounding monsters. Black smoke obscured vision for all pilots in the surrounding area.

"YEAH!" Jeremie shouted, now piloting his plane towards the original target once more.

His celebration was short-lived, however. A Dragon, infuriated with his constant meddling in XANA's affairs, slammed into Jeremie's plane, using its front claws to tear into the metal and cling on. The acid green metal glinted with a malicious glow as the Dragon slammed its head onto the Plexiglas windshield of Jeremie's plane, leveling its yellow and black 'eyes' with Jeremie's.

"Shit" was all Jeremie managed to say before the Dragon uttered another ear splitting roar before beginning to wrap its slender body around Jeremie's plane.

Annoyed, Jeremie began barrel rolling and executing unpredictable moves in an attempt to buck the unruly monster off. Undaunted, the Dragon merely roared once more and wrapped itself around the plane tighter, causing metal parts to break off.

"I hope that you like it hot, because you're going to hell!" Jeremie shouted, roughly pushing the controls downwards towards the energy cannon.

The Dragon opened its mouth in response, and, believing that the monster was going to attempt making him deaf again, Jeremie instinctively covered his ears. Instead of roaring, however, yellow energy began to be sucked in towards the energy cannon built into its mouth, preparing a devastating blast to Jeremie.

Jeremie's face paled upon looking at the impending attack, and mentally ran through his list of what to do in this kind of situation. Finding none, Jeremie's eyes darted around the cockpit, growing nervous as he heard the sounds of crunching metal increase both in frequency and in volume.

"AELITA!" he screamed before he slammed his palm onto the panel; his plane slammed into the energy cannon mere moments later, sending a small plume of fire and smoke into the air.

The Dragon, although having survived the shot, made the fatal mistake of releasing its pent-up energy on the remains of Jeremie's ship. A devastating blast rang through the area as a series of chain reactions occurred- the explosives that were detonated by the Dragon's energy blast exploded at the base of the energy cannon, immediately weakening the structural supports. With a mighty groan, the energy cannon lurched forwards and slammed onto the ground, sending a large plume of dust into the air.

[Page Break]

**19:27**

"AELITA!" Jeremie screamed, instantly attracting the attention of the aforementioned pink-haired female.  
"JEREMIE!" she shouted, instinctively rocketing her plane towards Jeremie's last known location.

She easily spotted the large serpentine monster with Jeremie's ship within its clutches falling towards the energy canon that had been the source of their worries for the past few weeks. Aelita's apprehension grew as she saw her husband eject from the cockpit, but had not activated his parachute. That's when she saw that he had been somehow knocked unconscious during the fray, whether it was due to his inability to breathe the air at 5,000 feet above sea level, or if he had been knocked unconscious due to parts collapsing as his plane was crushed around him.

She hardly noticed anything else as she piloted her plane towards Jeremie's body, wishing that she could do something about the situation rather than attempt to go under Jeremie's body and hope that he would slam onto her plane in the rather clichéd underbody scoop. Laser fire slammed into her plane, which sent warning signals to shrilly beep throughout her cockpit.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Aelita screamed, trying and failing to focus on her unconscious husband and the pursuing monsters at the same time.

Flames enveloped her already battle damaged plane as the continuous laser fire scored hits on her combat plane. She panicked as she heard the sound of sizzling metal being vaporized by the laser blasts, causing her to be so stressed that she failed to notice a faint white aura surrounding her body. She hoped that she was doing the right thing as she struggled to stay alive. With one foot, she kicked at the lever that would eject her seat from the slowly dismantling plane.

The rush of cold wind at roughly six hundred miles per hour forced all air from her lungs. Gasping for breath, she clawed at the seatbelts strapping her to her seat. Her successful efforts to free herself, however, sapped her strength, and she could only scream as she free fell down to the earth.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Aelita screamed reaching upwards as if the air would suddenly support her. Faced with this predicament, she was completely unaware of the white aura flicking around her before surrounding her body with an intense white glow.

[Page Break]

**19:34**

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Aelita screamed in agony, feeling the bulge on her back grow larger.

The pain was almost enough to force Aelita to shed several tears of pain. Before she knew what was going on, her wings ripped through the back of her uniform, the remnants of the two belts formerly used to restrain her wings snapping into fragments and falling uselessly around her.

Feeling her strength renewed as the white flame enveloped her, Aelita flew downwards, completely enveloped in the white light that made it impossible for humans and machines alike to look in her direction. As the blinding light dimmed, Aelita was still surrounded by the white flame-like light, though it was possible to see her in the center of the mystical light. By this time, her hair had changed to a pure white color, and her Sapphire eyes were blazing with anger- her true form had been activated.

A laser nearly clipped a wing; Aelita snarled in anger an shot a beam of pure white energy at the attacker before turning back to her target, not caring if the blast had actually hit or not. A loud explosion two hundred feet above seemed to confirm that, though.

By the time Aelita reached the limp form of her husband, they were less than seven hundred feet from the ground. She quickly snatched Jeremie's body and held it possessively close to her chest. Spreading her wings, she jammed them in an effort to slow their rapid descent to the ground. The strain on both her wings and her back, however, convinced her that the gesture wasn't helping matters at all, and that she had to take different approach to landing safely.

Nervous, Aelita started shaking in fear as she saw the ground rapidly rise towards them. Quickly making up her mind, Aelita allowed her wings to marginally spread outwards at an angle, allowing her to lose thrust and gain drag at a moderate pace. Aelita sighed in relief that they weren't going to be as flat as pancakes anytime soon, but was disappointed to learn that due to her actions, they were glided towards a rocky outcropping.

Flapping her wings several times despite the ache due to the extra weight of Jeremie's body and the almost unbearable strain created due to her fierce will to live, Aelita regained enough altitude to avoid smashing face-first into an extremely solid object. Exhausted despite the health and energy boost of her true form, Aelita started to unintentionally drift into the ground. Before she knew it, one of her feet grazed the ground, and Aelita shrieked as she was catapulted forward.

Both Aelita and Jeremie tumbled onto the ground, sending up a plume of dust and scraping their exposed hands on their face and around their hands. With a groan of pain, Aelita's body landed on one of her wings sometime during the fall, which made her let go of Jeremie. Both Aelita and Jeremie's bodies skidded on the desert ground, causing more damage to be inflicted to both of them.

Coughing as the foreign particles invaded her airways and her exertion finally took its toll on her body, Aelita struggled for breath before finally gasping in relief when she was able to do so. Crawling over to Jeremie's body once she had skidded to a stop, Aelita worriedly pressed two fingers to the side of his neck, feeling slightly relieved when she felt a small, barely recognizable pulse. ** Quickly squatting beside him, Aelita began a slightly modified version of CPR, unfailingly delivering thrusts to Jeremie's chest. ***

After about forty seconds however, Aelita began to grow worried even more as Jeremie failed to regain consciousness. Still, she kept the chest thrusts going, refusing to believe that he was truly going to perish. Snatching his head in her hands, she tilted his head back at a slight angle before pressing her lips against his, she blew life giving air into his body before pulling away and administering another breath.

Panting in disbelief at the lack of effects, Aelita quickly set him onto the ground and began chest thrusts again.

"Jeremie… no… please wake up… please…" Aelita moaned, feeling wetness collecting around the sides of her eyes as she continued to perform CPR. "Jeremie… Jeremie… JEREMIE MICHAEL BELPOIS, gosh fucking damn it! WAKE UP!" she screamed, sending a stinging slap across Jeremie's face.

Still, his body refused to move, and Aelita, believing that he was truly gone, let the tears slide down on her cheeks and splash onto his face. Freely sobbing in anguish, she felt her knees give way and collapsed onto Jeremie, burying her head on his shoulder. Too depressed in her anguish, she did not realize that Jeremie had just inhaled deeply, nor see his tired Sapphire-colored eyes fluttering open half way to see a pink-colored mass of hair shoved in front of his face. He winced in pain as his cheek still stung with the force of Aelita's slap, but found that he could not move his arms, as they were throbbing with pain.

They lay that way for a few moments, Aelita too wrapped up in her pain to recognize Jeremie's obvious presence of life and Jeremie was too tired and bruised to move at the moment. Aelita, deciding start to dig a grave to bury her husband in instead of just lying around and becoming a potential target for either falling wreckage or monsters, was surprised when two hands weakly grasped her and pulled her down, cradling her form on his chest.

"Looks like you owe me one this time" Jeremie lightly chuckled before being interrupted by a series of coughs forcing their way through his respiratory system. He wheezed in agony from his sustained injuries, and did not say or do anything more than breathe.  
"Yeah…" Aelita lightly smiled as she watched her husband slowly recover and crack his bones as he stretched to remove himself of the discomfort of being stiff from sitting in a plane for a few hours. "I guess that's one off the list of the times that you rescued me… At this rate, I'll never be able to repay for all the times you saved me!"  
"Don't worry about it for now, Aelita" Jeremie replied, closing his eyes as the tendrils of sleep wrapped around him. "Just rest… you've done enough for today."

Aelita gingerly curled up into a small ball, careful not to directly be on top of his chest while his body was recovering. Jeremie gave a small smile as he curled up beside her and fell into the darkness of sleep. As both of their breathing became synchronized, fighter jets and fighter-bombers alike distantly roared above them, all singing the song of triumph over the enemy.

* * *

Author's Note: * The mentioned incident here actually happened once on a commercial plane about 30 years (I don't remember the exact date) ago- the plane that Captain Moody flew went through volcanic ash that was spewed into the air by a recent eruption. Though the four engines stalled, one of the engines was able to function properly again, and so there were no casualties as a result of that problem.

** It's cartoon physics. I'm pretty sure that in real life, nobody could survive that fall or manage to slow their descent that fast (but then again, Aelita does have ten times the normal healthy human endurance level of her peers when in her true form). It's like Wile E. Coyote falling down a two thousand foot fall from a cliff.

*** I recently read in Reader's Digest that it was more efficient to keep on giving chest thrusts without stopping, because pausing to breathe air into the victim takes away precious time that could decide life or death.

Here's a fun fact- the Concorde, the world's first supersonic jet was retired due to the horrific costs of operation. Everyone knows gas prices are always high, and jet fuel is no exception. When you reach the speed needed to break the sound barrier, or go over it, fuel use increases exponentially for the plane. Because of this, planes today actually travel slower than they did 30 years ago!

One gallon of jet fuel weighs 6.7 pounds. Although it takes roughly 6,000 gallons of fuel for a Boeing 757 to travel from New York to California, it's actually more fuel efficient than a Hummer, if you crunch in the calculations for the gallons-per seat-per mile.


	12. Winter Wishes

AN: I'm going to try speeding this up a little by putting more gaps between dates. I think this will be the last chapter where I have the dates this close. If I don't do that, it would be pretty boring reading what they did from day to day.

In _Italics _between the two bold Page Breaks is the parts that were written by Beriothien (aka the co-owner of Cpt. Bill). I do not claim credit for his work. I had joked that since he was the person that was most likely to find overlooked flaws in my fanfiction, he should write the next chapter, but then he thought I was serious and actually took me up on it (see one of the fanfictions that he had recently published- the one titled "Ground Air Battle")... sorta. It's more of a change of perspective in the battle of Chapter 9.

The [Page Break] in bold means a change in scene, regular page breaks means that it's continuing from the last part with an amount of time passed.

References to "Road of the Dead" and "Left 4 Dead" were supposed to be made in the flashback (as it was supposed to be extended to include a car chase with the military trying to kill them because the city was placed under martial rule and was quarantined). Road of the Dead... *sighs* Sometimes I hit the civilians too, if they don't get out of the way, even when I have the horn on full blast. Other times, I do it just for fun.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 10: Winter Wishes  
South-Western France  
December 24, 2020  
08:29**

In between the darkness of the sacred silence of sleep and the blinding light of consciousness, Aelita drifted in the space. There, she was connected to the world, the universe even, being one with it as if it were a part of her. From this location, she could easily access any point and use her link to see through the eyes of any person or animal she desired. From the eyes of other humans, she saw cowering figures huddled besides fires lit in discarded oil barrels, huddling close to each other as if they would never be separated somehow, just by doing that. From the eyes of animals, she crossed multiple plains, climbed over the tallest mountains, and soared over the oceans.

She could smell the salty air by the shores of distant beaches; maybe count the individual grains of sand on them, if she had any time on her hands. But, in the eyes of the universe, time was never a problem. Though time and space were interconnected, they were also separate from each other in terms of their duties. Time never stopped for anyone, and space never was completely devoid of matter.

"Aelita…" she distantly heard a voice say, and she paused in her wanderings, unsure if she wanted to leave the warmth and comfort of being in this state.

However, she felt something grab hold of her and tear her away from the dream-like limbo. Cold metal pressed against her bare skin, causing her to involuntarily shiver. Her sapphire eyes snapped open to see similarly colored orbs urgently staring back at her, dirtied blond hair falling across his face. Aelita's scowl at the impromptu wake-up call soon faded away as Jeremie tugged at her uniform sleeve and was pointing as best as he could with energy handcuffs on to the oncoming metal-clad figures converging towards their location.

She found herself being held up by her wrists by a foot off the ground. A tall, slender man held her with one hand while fumbling with the energy cuffs with the other. A laser rifle was pressed against the bare portion of her back between her winged shoulder blades, the bearer softly growling in her ear, as if daring her to move. Similarly equipped goons stood around her and Jeremie in a semi circle, slowly advancing forward to trap the two within. Aelita wasn't stupid, nor was she entirely helpless. Several years of fighting XANA taught her that he most likely wanted them either as hostages or as his new servants. Maybe he would sic the Scyphozoa to feed on their brains and extract information from them until they were useful no longer to his purposes. However, there was a high possibility that XANA wanted them alive and undamaged as much as possible- they did not know yet what the maniacal AI wanted to do with them.

Aelita waited for the weapon-carrying goon to lean forward again, enough so that she could start the 'first stage' of the grand escape. Her hopes and calculations were not wrong- when he leaned forward to constantly remind her of his presence, Aelita hit him in his eye with one swipe of her powerful wings, causing him to stumble backwards, howling in pain. Swinging backwards and letting her body move forwards from the momentum, Aelita squarely landed her feet on her captor's stomach, causing her to drop unceremoniously onto the ground.

The sound of ten laser rifles going off simultaneously resounded through the barren land. Annoyed, Aelita summoned an energy field. The orb of white-colored plasma materialized on her palm before it coated her entire arm in crackling energy. Jeremie's shackles vaporized as Aelita's attack sucked in any form of energy to increase its power. Her palm slammed onto the ground, creating fissures on the rocky dirt and causing monsters and goons alike to stumble and fall over backwards.

Eyes glinting in anger, she tossed her pistol to Jeremie and shifted into an offensive pose, readying for battle. She hissed as she saw a multitude of Bloks charging their lasers, XANAtics- extremists crazed with the notion of lives being saved by the submission to the malevolent AI- soon following with more energy restraints clutched in their hands. Aelita defiantly stood in front of Jeremie; her wings puffing up in her anger further serving as a cover for him.

"Hold your fire until necessary." The leader commanded, slightly lowering his laser rifle and glaring eye-to-eye with the two geniuses. "Jeremie Belpois and Aelita Schaeffer-Belpois?"

Aelita said nothing in response, but continued to growl in low tones, watching him closely with a steely glare. The leader merely smirked as he watched them, much like a predator would as it observed its helpless prey.

"I am Smytus, destroyer of countries and Enslaver of souls! What have you to say to such a powerful being, insect?" Smytus taunted, only getting a pink energy sphere lobbed at his face in response, which he easily avoided by side-stepping. "Kid's got gut, I'll say," the leader said, waving his followers forward. "Let's knock it down a notch or two, 'eh?"

With that, he tugged at his sleeve to reveal a metal device curling around his wrist. The device hummed with a strange energy before electricity, potent enough to quickly knock a human into unconsciousness, ached from its opening into Aelita's body. Unfortunately for him, Aelita was more than a simple human now, and the best that the electrical shock did was cause her to momentarily writhe in pain on the ground, kicking and screaming loudly in the dirt.

"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted in surprise before rounding on the leader with fire blazing in his eyes. "You son of a-!" Jeremie quickly leveled Aelita's pistol at the leader's head.  
"Me first!" Aelita yelled, catching both Jeremie and the XANAtic leader by surprise and pouncing on the latter then furiously clawing at his face.

The leader soon recovered from his shock and began to make attempts to shove the furious Aelita off of him. The Bloks' laser fire was released, diverting Aelita's attention into springing into a defensive form and making an energy shield to absorb the attacks before they could hit either her or Jeremie. Jeremie, now crouching back-to-back with Aelita, started to fire shots at their attackers, managing to destroy at least 5 of the Bloks before all the bullets in the loaded gun were spent. Aelita gritted her teeth as the continuous laser fire unleashed upon the shield caused it to start to flicker in and out of existence. A few moments later, and one shot fired directly at the center of the shield caused it to shatter into pink glass-like fragments before disappearing in wisps of energy.

"Checkmate" the leader snidely said, stepping closer towards their location with his greedy hands outstretched.

Almost immediately, the crackling sound of electricity was heard behind the two soldiers. Puzzled, Aelita looked behind her only to gasp in fear when she saw two Guardians waiting for them, slowly drifting towards them. Aelita held Jeremie close to her body, leaping away from the threatening monsters and putting several more feet in between them. However, she was quickly running out of space- they were beset on all sides by traitors and XANA's monsters alike, and constant laser fire from the latter group forced the two to separate. Jeremie growled as he was forced to duck an electric bolt that flew in his direction, forcing him to move backwards... exactly what the Guardians wanted.

Jeremie felt a strange tingling as he was being absorbed by the Guardian, unable to detect what it was until he felt a strong suction at his back, pulling his limbs backwards. He cried for Aelita, who quickly came running to his aid, seemingly not paying attention to any shots fired from stun guns as she charged towards her husband. Aelita pulled at Jeremie's arm- one of the last of his body parts outside of the Guardian- but Jeremie cried loudly as he was caught in between the gentle pull of the Guardian and Aelita's grip. His arm felt like it was about to dislocate from his shoulders, but he didn't want to let go- having a dislocated shoulder would be the lesser of two evils when deciding between that or being a servant of XANA.

Aelita cried out in shock as electricity rippled through her body from a XANAtic's stun gun, forcing her to let go of Jeremie as she convulsed on the ground. Jeremie yelped as he was completely absorbed by the Guardian, drifting into a submissive state with his eyes closed and his arms outstretched. Aelita panted as she got off the ground, only to come face-to-face with the other Guardian approaching her. Sighing, she collapsed onto her knees, seemingly in defeat. The leader's grin, if possible, grew wider- that is, until Aelita lifted her head up and sang a single, angelic note that pierced the air and caused the surfaces of the Guardians to ripple with the strange power.

Almost immediately, a ball of white energy appeared between her and Jeremie's Guardian before the energy stretched to create a perfect spectral copy of Jeremie Belpois. Jeremie's Guardian was considerably confused- it was sent to absorb the particular energy of a specific being- and it had done so, but now there was another being that had the same energy signature as the human it had already captured. Stretching out to absorb this new form, as per orders, it made contact with Aelita's clone. However, this specific model of Guardians was not built to hold multiple captives, therefore the new energy form created by Aelita overloaded the Guardian's systems. The Guardian quivered before it increased to a violent shake, exploding into thin, orange wisps of energy not long afterward and dropping its former prisoner to the ground, unconscious.

"Shame" Smytus remarked, waving the other Guardian forward. "I suppose that if Master XANA can't have the insect that restarted the supercomputer in the first place, I guess he'll be happy to have the madman's daughter instead"  
"Over my dead body!" Aelita snarled back, holding Jeremie's limp form close to her. "Send your master my regards"

With one arm curled around his waist and the other under his knees, Aelita pushed off the ground and furiously beat her wings, gaining both altitude and the satisfaction of watching the traitors shouting in pain and confusion as sand was blown in their eyes.

"Be seeing you!" she called to them, giving a cheeky smile before flying off, going higher and higher into the atmosphere.

Lasers were fired rapidly in all directions- a futile attempt to regain what was already lost. Aelita playfully stuck out her tongue before flying away into the horizon, towards the 45th Regiment's base, flying high enough to detect any monsters trying to sneak an attack from behind, but low enough so that she wouldn't suffocate her passenger from the lack of oxygen at higher altitudes.

**[Page Break]**

**[(File system corrupted, date and file name lost)]**  
**[(Alert! Corrupted File System may have deleted parts of this file, do you wish to proceed?)]**  
**[(Attempting to retrieve last saved file...)]**  
**[(Retrieval successful)]**  
**[Starting program with specified file name)]**

_Private log of Captain Bill Nenharma, Date unknown _

_I wonder about this war, if we can win it and if we do what it is we'll win. Earth has been ravaged by nuclear attacks, cities lie empty and burning, massive tracts of farmland have been reduced to radioactive wastelands and what's left of humanity huddles together while we soldiers fight XANA. And XANA is winning this war, make no mistake about it._

_It started, the war I mean, in a surprise attack where all devices powered by computers rebelled. At least that's what the first theories were. All our networked connected devices formed an emergent neural network that was able to think for itself. The world's computers formed XANA and decided to eradicate the human race. Nuclear strikes were launched, fighter jets turned on us, tanks began terrorizing civilians with their drivers held captive inside. How we ever survived the betrayal of our technology is still a mystery. Life always finds a way. I heard that on the discovery channel once._

_The one bright spot of the 'war to end all wars', I have friends now. One beautiful and her long time buddy John Sheppard, along with her brother and a few other people. My RIO Angela is another good friend I can't forget to mention. Though she came after, and largely because of, Michelle. But she wants out of this war, to the point of being suicidal. I can't fathom that, though it seems so understandable. She's lost more than she may be willing to tell me, I can't imagine what having to kill a friend in cold blood did to her. I wonder what this war and world will be without her._

_I wonder if it's worth winning, if I'm going to be honest. She might, if she were reading this, tell me to get over that and move on. That I could still survive now that she's shown me how. But at the moment, I'm not wondering about myself. I'm wondering about the human race. After all, all the damage XANA caused, it was all with our military technology. As a world we've come together like never before._

_Nations have put aside centuries old conflicts to fight out new common threat. Economics don't matter anymore, social status isn't relevant in combat and even plain civilians have experienced the horrors of this war. Material flows as freely as XANA allows. Or so some would think. We're lucky to be stationed where we are. We're one of the last remaining bases that is combat ready and we have the task of destroying the giant energy cannon. We get priority on food, fuel, parts and ordinance. I've heard of places being deemed too insignificant to defend, tens of thousands left to die as their country pulls back the forces necessary to defend them. I tell myself that it's military reality, heck I even know that's true. But I wonder how the powers that be make the decision of who is saved and who gets left to die. I can't bring myself to embrace the idea that it's 100% strategic necessity._

_Of course even if we ignore all human failings, there's a real question of victory. Our strength is sapped with every battle. It takes years to grow a human, more years to train them and then only experience makes them any good in a fight. It takes XANA about 10 minutes to build a new combat ready robot. It takes even less time to project a specter. We can destroy as many energy cannons as XANA builds but the reality is, we don't control enough resources to keep it up. Sooner or later we won't have the people, the guns, the planes, the fuel, or the ammunition to destroy the next one XANA builds._

_But the brass doesn't see it that way. They think conventional tactics can win this war. Hell, maybe they are right. But it seems unlikely that we can destroy every single device that could possibly hold XANA's programming. Every processor, every byte of memory ever produced outside of the sterile plants in select and very secret locations around this globe must be destroyed. Only then can we be sure of XANA's demise. It's a pipe dream... Why doesn't anyone else understand that?_

_I fear the answer is that forward looking leaders are hoping to salvage XANA to tame for later use. Anyone who thinks they can control that sort of technology is certifiably insane. When a fighter returns to base its data recording systems are quarantined and checked for XANA contamination. We dispose of memory chips that get close to XANA and then hope the read only memory in the jets is ok. No one even checks it for integrity. Why should they, it's a bunch of resisters in an array so it's un-modifiable. A look over my head at the energy barrier that protects this base screams otherwise. Protective shields were once impossible after all. Am I getting as paranoid as Michelle?_

_In summary I know we can't win. This Christmas may well be the last one humans ever see. Jeremy and Aelita would say differently. Maybe I can tap into their optimism and re-find my own. Maybe I can accept that the human race hasn't finally finished the task it set out for itself: suicide. Maybe I can survive the next mission and come back to find Michelle waiting for John and I, Aelita and Jeremy with that characteristically sad look. Perhaps we'll all get lucky and she'll favor us with a smile. I worry it's more likely that we'll come home to find it's not home anymore, that she's gone forever. Then again, I worry that none of us will make it back some days too. Maybe, this Christmas will bring some real cheer and, if I'm lucky, real hope for the future._

**[Page Break]**

**December 25, 2020  
Regiment Base  
06:02**

"Mommy says to get up now" Antea said, lightly shaking Michelle's shoulder, instantly causing the disheveled female to sleepily open her eyes.  
"Tell your mommy that ... mmmmmm..." Michelle closed her eyes and burrowed deeper into the cocoon of blankets, intent on sleeping in for the day.  
"You'll miss it!" Antea whispered. "You won't see their surprise!"

The response was immediate- Michelle sprang out of bed and hurriedly started to dress into proper uniform despite the pain still evident in her recovering foot.

"Why didn't you say so before?" Michelle mumbled, darting out of the tent and slightly limping as she did so.  
"I told you it would work" Aelita said from the other side of the tent, smiling even as she was addressing the last of her wounds attained from battle. "Did you miss me while I was gone?"

It wasn't necessary for Aelita to keep her wings hidden from view anymore- there were about twenty-five soldiers that saw her flying in from overhead with Jeremie in tow. It was a welcome relief, as Aelita wouldn't have liked to keep them pinioned to her back- it became quite uncomfortable, even painful, after periods of time passed without the bearer letting them stretch out freely.

"Oh, yes, mommy. You missed Grandma's call also. Grandpa was really worried when I told him that you hadn't come back yet" Antea replied, burying herself within Michelle's warm covers.  
"Well, here I am again. I'll have to give them a call later. Also," Aelita now tipped her head to the side in curiosity. "What did you do while I was gone."  
"Uhm... nothing." Antea responded with a small innocent smile, remembering the incident that happened yesterday, where she hung plastic imitations of a certain plant all over the camp.**  
**"Well... alright... I guess I'll let that slide, since you couldn't have caused that much trouble when I was not here..." Aelita said, turning around to retrieve a bandage from the small first-aid kit she had with her. Antea coughed and muttered something that sounded like 'Red faced Towser' before coughing again and giving a small, innocent smile. "Oh, I hope you're not getting a cold, dear" Aelita mumbled, biting off a piece of gauze tape from the roll.  
"Nah, Ms. Fell let me share her blankets. She didn't mind that much, not even when she found me already snuggled within them"  
"I thought Mich- I meant, I thought she didn't like children"  
"I, uh... sort of used the puppy-eye pout on her..."

**[Page Break]**

**06:14**

Four figures, hidden in the dark, crouched outside a tent, whispering to each other.

"You ready?"  
"Yeah"  
"Mmmhmm"  
"Let's go for it"  
"Alright, on trois." the first one said, unzipping the front of the tent that prevented dust and insects from getting inside. "Une..." the figure continued, slipping inside and motioning the others to do the same "Deux... trois..."  
"YAAAAAAAAH!" They shouted, pouncing on one of the tent's occupants.

A surprise that was loud enough to put the band members of Scream-O to shame came forth from the lips of the pounced, sending the would-be assailants into hysterics.

"Merry fucking Christmas!" Michelle shouted in Captain's Bill's ear.  
"My poor ears..." Jeremie groaned, burying his head under his pillow. Waldo continued to 'sleep' and 'snored' loudly throughout the whole affair.  
"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" he gasped out, clutching his heart with a hand and panting heavily.  
"Nearly? Oh, you just made me disappointed with myself... Alright Melissa, you can get off of him now."  
"That was fun" Melissa laughed, brushing off dirt from her uniform as she stood up.  
"So... what are you guys doing here?" Captain Bill asked, sitting up.  
"Well, it's Christmas" said John, grinning.  
"I got you a jar of dirt!" exclaimed Michelle, smiling deviously.  
"Really?"  
"Nope" Melissa replied, shaking her head.  
"Instead..." started Corporal Winters, apologetically rubbing the back of his head.  
"We got you..." continued Michelle.  
"A present that would make up..."  
"For the tent..."  
"I crushed when I was going..."  
"...to the training field a few days ago"  
"...and John was quite the designer..." Melissa continued.  
"... and so I designed it around the Stargate universe!" John finished proudly.  
"So... you're not giving me a jar of dirt?"  
"Of course not!" Corporal Winters scoffed, holding the aforementioned object up proudly. "That's what _I _got!"  
"And then I gave ex-General Ziggy a rocket launcher, and then I gave John a blade launcher that is capable of mass destruction and chaos and then I-!" Michelle said, counting with her fingers as she went on.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You gave them actual weapons... ACTUAL WEAPONS! All you gave me was a jar of dirt!"  
"Wait, how are you able to afford all of these things?" John asked, fingering his new, shiny weapon.  
"Rank has its privileges- I was able to persuade them to lend me it so I can go commando on the next ground mission. And... that was because you didn't give back my bread knife last month, and then you went and lost it. I mortally wounded an intruder breaking into my home with that! Do you know how many hours it took sharpening that thing?"  
"Enough to almost kill the intruder?"  
"Precisely!"

**[Page Break]**

**06:40  
**

"... and this is a replica of a Stargate portal..." said John, flicking a switch that lit up the display.  
"... Quite artistic, actually... You wouldn't guess from what you usually know about him" Melissa continued.  
"... It looks like a giant toilet bowl" Michelle noted dryly, pointing at the blue, swirling substance, immediately getting weird stares. "... What? I'm not exactly a fan of this TV show, you know... I just remembered watching an episode of SG-1 out of boredom one day and laughing every time I saw one of those things"  
"You know... it sorta does look like a toilet bowl, now that you think of it..." remarked Captain Bill, tilting his head to the side before quoting a passage from one of the Stargate episodes in which the characters said almost the exact same thing.  
"Uh oh... We have a SSS..." Joseph whispered in Michelle's ear, who nodded before replying.  
"Initiate Plan Y. Back away slowly..." she said, retreating to the entrance of the tent. Joseph followed her, and both slipped away unnoticed to the outside world. "... On second thought... let's leave them a present before we completely escape from the scene."  
"Reach into my bag... I think I have some of the Hershey chocolates I took from th-"  
"No! I will not let my friends become diabetics! Do you know how troubling it is for people to keep count of a diabetic's blood-glucose level?"  
"...then I used her sublights to plot a course to Jupiter then went into FTL towards Jupiter- the game only allows space travel around our solar system for now..." John said.  
"Are you almost done yet?" Corporal Winters hissed, annoyed with how long it was taking her to find that specified object.  
"In theory, if you avoided the atmosphere of the sun all you'd need is a very reflective surface..." Captain Bill replied.  
"Here it is!"

With that, a small, yellow, semi-spherical object was rolled into the tent, and the siblings walked away, whistling merrily. Bored, Melissa shuffled around the tent without paying attention to anything for a source of amusement.

"... Where the hell is Michelle?"* John asked, looking around the room. "I think we scared her away with the Sci-fi talk..."  
"I think you might be right about that... Perhaps if we stop, she'll come back?"

At this point, Melissa had accidentally kicked the item placed on the ground by Michelle and had picked it up in curiosity.

"Hey guys... what's this?" Melissa asked, holding it up to them. Captain Bill blanched upon sight of it.  
"It's a..." John said before being interrupted by Captain Bill.  
"GRAPEFRUIT!"

Halfway across camp, Michelle heard Captain Bill's shout and scratched her head thoughtfully.

"I thought he liked grapefruit... Oh well... I'll file that away for reference."

**[Page Break]**

**14:31**

Aelita rested comfortably on the chair the hospital had provided for her, resting her head between the crook of Jeremie's head and his chest. Around them, Waldo and Antea gamboled and played with each other with the youthful energy of puppies, frisking about as they darted from corner to corner, laughing uncontrollably. As Jeremie had remained unconscious throughout her flight, Aelita made sure that he recovered at a leisurely pace in the hospital while they waited for him to regain consciousness once more after Captain Bill reported that he had discovered him awake. Apparently, getting absorbed by the Guardians in the real world was more exhausting than if it was in Lyoko- Jeremie recounted that it felt like his very life was being sucked out. If what he said was true, then getting captured by the Scyphozoa would not only be exhausting both mentally and physically, its near-invincibility made it a formidable foe in terms of it being able to penetrate through the Warriors' defenses and possess them. From there, he could easily level the playing field, or tip it to his favor.

Michael lay sprawled on a chair nearby, resting his head on Aelita's lap as she gently stroked his fur. The wolf grunted in contentment and made a show of himself by licking Aelita's hand and giving a slight wag of his tail.

"Antea tried to bring Catherine and Patrick here, but the staff didn't want more than one pet present in the room. Though computer systems have advanced to the point of detecting if a person is allergic to animals and putting them in another part of the ward, the staff hates the mess. So... we settled for the most docile of the three."  
"Well, at least you were able to bring one" Jeremie replied as he let out an outward groan of contentment as he lie in bed, allowing his drained body to recover from the Guardian's irresistible urge to sustain itself by sucking up as much energy as it possibly could in a short amount of time.

How the prisoners of XANA stand extended amounts of time within the Guardians was beyond him. Sometimes, if it was feeling more sadistic than usual, XANA would allow the humans to reside within the Guardian so long that the orange orbs completely sucked the life out of them- leaving them as lifeless husks of their former selves.

Today, though, was Christmas, and Jeremie was feeling more than grateful that he was alive today, feeling safe and protected behind the energy shield projections... for the most part. How lucky they were to even be honored with being in the resistance to XANA's rule- having more freedoms than the people that had joined the maniacal AI either in their own cowardice or their pursuit of power. Serving XANA basically meant slavery, with the AI making conditions the worst it possibly could. How one of those crazed XANAtics could even muster up the stomach to convince their fellow human beings to join with them in enslavement was beyond the minds of any sane person.

"The first thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me..." Jeremie murmured, still a little out of it from his head making contact with the ground. The bump on his head had swelled a little, though Dr. Nielson had said that it was only minor damage and he would easily recover from it.  
"...Is finding a Christmas tree" Aelita finished, shifting her head upwards for her gentle gaze to meet his. "You know... I can never remember why we always stopped at the ninth pain of Christmas... Ascending does that to a person... you're basically projected on a blank slate and you won't recall any bit of life you had before"  
"Well..." Jeremie replied, rubbing his chin in thought "I think it was because we were supposed to yell at the kids when they exclaimed that they wanted something for Christmas"  
"I wouldn't want to yell at them without good reason" Aelita mumbled, lightly gasping in surprise as Antea buried herself into her stomach in an attempt to get away from Waldo's touch- tag was a very serious game to them, akin to having an extremely contagious disease.

Michael let out a sharp yelp at the sudden disturbance and withdrew from Aelita, finding peace by lying near Jeremie's side. He rested his muzzle on one of Jeremie's legs, crooning in content when Jeremie rubbed the base of his ears. Waldo made a face at his sibling and he too clambered onto his mother, content at resting nearby his sibling, in the case of being able to simply reach out and tag her afterwards.

Antea noticed her brother slowly reaching out to tag her, and with a muffled giggle, she moved away from it, smirking as she climbed onto her father's bed. Waldo stuck his tongue out at her and buried himself within his mother, snuggling between her arms and trying to get as close to her as possible.

"This is the best Christmas ever" Antea mumbled, smiling as her eyes shone with mirth as she looked at her family. "It's all down to the bare necessities..." Here, the smile took a mischievous tone as she looked up at her drawing she tacked on the small medical billboard above Jeremie's head. Aelita bent forward to take a better look.

Realization dawned upon them as their eyes fell upon the crude drawing of a mistletoe- Jeremie nervously fidgeted while Aelita's face turned a shade slightly darker than that of her hair.

"Even marriage doesn't prevent you from this, huh Aelita" Jeremie chuckled heartily, giving his wife a peck on the cheek.

**[Page Break]**

**19:46**

"Before I forget... Beriothien, check one of your socks. I hid a small box of chocolates in there- but I can't tell you which sock I hid it in... I'll make this like a little game"  
"Will do"  
"Christmas is always better the more friends and family there is" Joseph stated, watching as the others gathered around him nodded in turn.  
"You know, I don't think I told you guys on how I met John over here" Michelle stated, leaning against the corrugated metal wall repeatedly marked with bullet holes. "I'll tell you a bit of how John and I met, though I'll let you imagine what happened afterwards... with all the chaos raging and the military trying to kill us with repeated carpet bombings and using superiority fighters to try to bomb us to itty bitty pieces"  
"Huh?"  
"No you're thinking of the other one- I think you were asleep when I started running over soldiers and infected humans alike because they were all trying to kills us"  
"Was not!" Joseph angrily interjected, earning a shrug from his sibling.  
"Well, I don't really remember- I'm not supposed to look back when I'm driving, especially when going like... one hundred miles per hour..."

**August 2, 2020  
09:26**

"Name" The coordinator asked gruffly, momentarily peering at the young man standing in front of her before turning her attention back to the clipboard with the names of the assisting former college students cleaning up the remnants of the building's former purpose.  
"Jonathan Sheppard"  
"Jack B. Nimbel, Jack Bee Qwick... shame that they didn't have a Jack that jumped over a candlestick. ...Anyway, let see here... Jethro Gibbs, John Sheppard... Yep, I see you on the list. Welcome to ye old Toll University... or what's left of it" the slightly younger female spoke, grasping John's hand in hers and giving it a brief shake.  
"Yeah, what's left" John muttered, looking around the decrepit room.  
"My name is Michelle, but call me 'Shelly, and I'll have to hurt you." Michelle handed him a face mask, which John put on before replying.  
"Uhm... okay Michelle." John said, making a mental note of that. "So... where do I start?"  
"You and me are the only ones that are supposed to clean this part of the wing. We're supposed to clean out school so that the construction company can tear this down and rebuild it from scratch, but I guess we could start over there in one of the classrooms, I think. I remember that lady in the office... Ms. Larson, I think her name was... said that they needed to be cleaned out and organized, or something like that. ...I remember Lawrence used to call her a neat freak behind her back when I schooled here... She always complained that I had highlighted my hair with small red streaks purposely just to annoy her... Anyway," Michelle sighed, getting out a garbage bag and shoveling discarded papers into it. "Have you heard of this new illness spreading around? They're calling it a flu, or something like that."  
"I think so" John replied, pulling out books from the shelves. "I heard that it was really contagious and it could be transmitted by saliva... touch... even breathing."  
"So... why are we here if there's a risk of a pandemic?"  
"I don't know"  
"... but it's probably nothing. Like H1N1 a long time ago, it didn't' turn out to be anything major"  
"I mean... people are keeling over everywhere"  
"Oh..." John replied, obviously shocked. "I didn't hear that from the news recently"  
"Radio... I listened it while speeding on the way here. Course, I got a traffic ticket for doing so, but it's nothing new. I can't help it if I like to go fast... ...Hey, have you heard?"  
"Have I heard... what?"  
"The bird is the word!" Michelle laughed, tossing a thick volume with faded coverings behind her.

The old volume fell with a loud 'whumph' to the old, yellow-stained floor. Dust from the volume that was allowed to collect over a span of approximately five years drifted into the air, caught in the sunlight streaming down the cracked, clouded window panes. Michelle stared at it in mute fascination for a few seconds before turning away to continue working; Working, when used here, means sitting on the floor and leisurely reading some of the written material that was slated for the dumpster before throwing them away.

A loud cry of pain cut through the air, preceding a tortured groan that echoed in the corridor. The empty space magnified the sound, causing an effect eerie enough to send shivers up the spine, even on the more older and fearless people. John curiously peeked out of the open doorway, but saw nothing except the flickering lights above, deconstruction materials sprawled across the corridor, and school property damaged from generations of pupils. Shrugging his shoulders, he was about to return into the former classroom when suddenly, two hands grabbed his shoulders and began pulling him backwards. Instinctively, John ripped himself away from the attacker and punched him in the stomach as hard as he could, sending the latter doubling backwards. The construction worker hissed in pain and tilted its head upwards to stare at John.

John angrily stared into the construction worker's eyes, only to be surprised when he saw that they were both white. The construction worker snarled, as if it were a trapped animal instead of a human, revealing slightly yellowed teeth, blood covering most of the surface on them, formed into sharp points. A circular symbol momentarily flickered on the milky orbs before the infected construction worker launched himself into John and started to claw at John's exposed skin. Just before the infected worker could sink his teeth into John's throat, the discarded volume flew across the room and slammed into his head, knocking the bright yellow construction helmet off as it stumbled backwards.

"Looks like this shit was good for something," Michelle stated, picking up another heavy book.

The infected hissed in annoyance, exposing his teeth once more in an attempt to stave off its attacker from its meal. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, John curled his hand into a fist and punched the worker's chest. The air was forced out of his throat at once, causing the construction worker to fall on his knees and cradle its chest, glaring at the two.

"Come on..." Michelle grumbled, ready to lob the book in her hand at the infected. "Show me what you've got."

The infected merely continued to stare at the two before swiftly crawling away from both on all fours. The sound of heaving breathing from both John and Michelle, and the strangeness of their recent encounter with the crazed construction worker masked the soft crying of a depressed female hiding outside in the bushes. Meanwhile, when the infected worker deemed that it was a safe distance away from its attackers, it let out a piercing shriek that echoed throughout the abandoned school.** Shouts and roars responded to the shriek before the school seemed to tremble under the footfalls of a hundred people madly rushing towards a single source, like mall shoppers to a store holding a sale.

"Oh shit! Shit! Shit! They're coming!" Michelle panicked, lobbing the book she was holding in her hands at one of the windows, which shattered upon impact.

Instantly, a startled yell that sounded very much like an angry cat floated through the shattered window. Bloodied long-fingered hands clawed at the window, ignoring the broken glass embedding into its fingers.

"What the-!"  
"Run like hell!" Michelle loudly commanded, slamming the bags of collected trash at the clawing hands.

A milk-white face with long, pale blond hair appeared where the windowsill used to be, the feminine figure unfurling from its sitting position on the ground and brandishing its claws threateningly, preparing to strike at the two stunned humans. Like the first infected that both John and Michelle met, she was lacking pupils and wore dirtied, tattered clothing.

"Hiiiiiyaaaah!"

The infected stumbled forwards, furiously hissing in anger before collapsing onto a particularly large shard that was one of the few pieces of glass remaining in the windowpane. A male figure hidden in the shadow of a large tree stood where the infected female used to be, grinning as if he had won the Stanley Cup. He stepped into the light, flashing a pleasant smile as he did so.

"Yo, Joe!" Michelle greeted the new figure with a sigh of relief as she ripped off her face mask, John doing the same as he inspected this new person in front of him.  
"What the hell, 'Chell?"Joseph greeted as he extended a hand to his sibling and helped her over to the outside world. "Who's your friend"  
"Jonathan Sheppard" Michelle replied, taking John's hand and helping him vault over the broken glass. "He punches good"  
"Hey John, I'm Joseph" Joseph shook John's hand vigorously.

The loud shouts that were converging on their location reminded them of their dire situation.

"This way" Michelle urged, taking John's hand once more in hers and leading both males to the parking garage.  
"Hey John, have you ever been scared shitless before?" Joseph asked in between great gasps of air.  
"No, I don't think so..."  
"Well... you haven't seen my sister drive, then." Joseph replied, nearly shouting hallelujahs and performing back flips as he saw the monolithic garage loom into view.  
"Then... why do you let her drive, then?"  
"Well, she took the driver's exam and passed in less attempts than me"  
"... and how many would that be, exactly?" John nervously asked.  
"Oh, Michelle? She passed it in three attempts. It took me a little while longer"  
"How much longer?"  
"Uhm... I passed on the fifth try?"

The three vaulted over the wooden gate at the entrance that obstructed cars from entering or leaving until they had respectively either taken a paper ticket, or had paid. Michelle proudly stood in front of a black and red sports car that was parked incorrectly, thereby taking up two parking spaces. The car itself was an Acura, the body painted a gray-black gradient with red highlighting on the hood and sides of the car. 'Bad News' was stenciled in Matura font over the streaks of red on almost every side, The sleek, thin-bodied car was only able to hold up to four passengers- the perfect type of car for a pair of people looking for one or two friends to come along with them for dinner or a movie one some nights, and for putting racers to shame on other nights.

"Like it? I call her 'Bad News'." Michelle proudly declared, pointing out her car with a flourish.  
"So I see... Might I ask why?" John asked as he hopped into the passenger's seat.  
"Why? Everyone knows that Bad News travels fast; that's why." Joseph replied, sliding into the backseat.

Michelle plucked the parking ticket that was pinned on her windshield and sighed.

"I knew I should have not eaten breakfast today" she grumbled as she slid into the driver's seat and quickly fastened her seat belt.  
"What does that have to do with anything?"  
"If I eat breakfast, it means that I'll be late, and I had to basically fly here. ...Get in, and make sure you have your seat belt on"

[Page Break]

The engine roared to life, loudly echoing off the large stone walls. Michelle flipped open the built-in eyeglass storage case on the ceiling and took out a pair of sunglasses.

"Let's put Hollywood to shame," Michelle smirked, slamming her foot on the gas pedal.

John hung on for dear life as the car sped down the ramp leading to the garage exit, barreling through the wooden gate.

"Shit" Michelle grumbled, sharply turning the steering wheel to make a turn. "I hope that didn't take off any paint... I spent three hours re-designing this thing's paint job"

Bad News shot through the campus at nearly 140 kilometers per hour; Michelle constantly swerving to avoid the infected humans.

"This is bad... really bad..." she muttered jerking the steering wheel to the right and causing the car to skid. "Hey, John, are you a good shot?"  
"Yeah, why?"  
"In the glove compartment in front of you, there is a pistol and a Magnum with three or five additional clips of ammunition for each of them. ...Don't look at me like that- pilots usually have them in the cockpits of planes in case of emergencies nowadays- I just bought them for personal protection in case of robbers or pedophiles and the like instead of pepper spray. In case those... people try to kill us, you're gonna have to shoot them in non-lethal places; I don't want to have to deal with the police inquiries of several dead bodies lying on an abandoned school campus."  
"Why are there so many people here, anyway?" John asked, handing the Magnum to Joseph.  
"Well, this campus is pretty big, and the administration wants it completely demolished in less than a month, so the construction company probably sent out close to 300 people for the job here, including electricians and the like. Additionally, there's the volunteers to clean up this wreck..." Joseph explained, clutching onto the back of the passenger seat for support as Michelle continued to circle the roundabout.  
"Home" Michelle spoke in a crisp voice; instantly a digital map pinpointing their location in relation to the house's location popped up on a retractable screen on the dashboard.  
"Wait, what's happening?"  
"We're taking you to our home, John" Joseph answered, idly playing the Viper .44 Magnum and pretending to fire it. "We're gonna hang around until we can find something we can do to get out of this twp-by-four situation."  
"Dammit, Joe," Michelle grumbled, briefly looking in the rear view mirror. "If you fire that gun and you break something, I will wring your neck... squeeze the life out of you."  
"You wouldn't do that to your own brother... would you" Joseph replied nervously.  
"Yes, especially since it took me several years to completely dismantle that car and re-make it."

The black and red sports car sped down the highway at 150 kilometers per hour, easily bypassing other cars. Strangely, there were fewer cars than usual, as France was regularly plagued with traffic. Suddenly, a dark blue car with interior red and blue strobe lights started accelerating to Bad News's speed and swerved into its direction with the intent to wipe out the three inside.

"It's the police!" John hissed, pointing at the oncoming car.  
"No it's not... at least, I don't think it is" Michelle replied back, glancing up at the rearview mirror. "I've had too many speeding tickets to not be able to tell which is an undercover cop car. ...The license plate doesn't begin with MG- Municipal Government- and well... I would have like... 20 cop cars on me by now"  
"He's gonna ram us!" Joseph shouted, worriedly looking at the blue car that revved up once more and sped towards the three.  
"Oh hell no" Michelle snapped, slamming on the gas pedal to avoid collision before accelerating again to drive past the car.  
"Well, you wanted to beat Hollywood" Joseph sighed, cocking the pistol and rolling down the windows.  
"Well, I didn't mean it like this..."

Joseph took aim with the Viper .44 Magnum and fired several times at the front wheels of the pursuing car. However, most of the bullets were either defelcted or were embedded in the metal covering the police car's tires- one of the safety features that made it harder for the police force's enemies to take down squad cars. The possessed undercover policeman hissed, the XANA mark showing in his eyes as he reached for the pistol tucked safely inside the leather holster on his belt.

"Hard to pop the tires in this thing" John grumbled, shooting off another three bullets as the XANAfied police officer opened the window and stuck his pistol out. "Whoa!" he suddenly shouted, pulling his head down as a bullet whizzed by overhead.  
"I'm pulling back" Michelle called, slamming on the brakes to slide her car behind the infected officer.

Just as they were passing, however, both infected and the trio momentarily glanced at each other, staring dead into the others eyes- or in the officer's case, the lack of normal eyes. With a loud screech of tires, Michelle steered the car away from the pursuing vehicle. One of Joseph's fired shots embedded itself into the tires, though the car hardly slowed down.

"Dammit... I forgot they had all-wheel drives..." Joseph mumbled as he reloaded the Magnum.

[Flashback End]

**Present Day  
22:05****  
**

"Anyway, that's how John and I met. It turns out that he had graduated a year earlier than I had- 2014, while I was in the class of 2013." Michelle explained, stretching her limbs after sitting in one spot for the entire duration of telling part of the story. "If any of you guys need me, I'll turn in for the night"

With a brief smile, Michelle turned got up and slowly walked away from Ex-General Ziggy, John, Bill and the other soldiers gathered in the area near a dying campfire- the embers still flickered with bright red and orange even as it was slowly smitten to ashes. Captain Bill had a slightly guilty expression as she headed towards her tent, but didn't explain himself, not even when asked.

A soldier leaned towards a comrade, unaware that he had just pressed several buttons on Ex-General Ziggy's rocket launcher, haphazardly hidden from the scrutiny of the General of the Army, as he did so. It beeped once before firing a small missile that landed several feet away from Commander Anthrax.

"Oh my God!" he shouted, flailing his arms about. "How can you afford these things!"

Michelle flinched, and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.

******22:10**

**[Page Break]**

Michelle stared blankly at the interior of the tent, dripping with grapefruit juice. The remains of a small explosive device was one of the last testaments to the deed. With one of her sock-clad feet, she lightly pushed her sleeping bag away to sigh in relief that her journal hadn't been touched by the barrage of liquid. However, her other belongings hadn't suffered the same lucky fate as the worn book that Michelle didn't use a lot. Gingerly, she picked up one of her favorite blades, covered in the sticky grapefruit juice and momentarily stared at it before licking the blade clean of juice.

"You know you're going to cut your tongue with that" Aelita quietly scolded, disassembling the tent for cleaning.  
"I know that" Michelle replied back, tossing the blade into a metal canister designated to hold the belongings of each individual. "I've never actually tasted what grapefuit is, though... I always just thought of it as an overgrown reddish-pink orange."  
"Well, it doesn't matter now... Antea and I are going to be bunking in with Melissa. ...I trust that you have your sleeping arrangements planned for the night?"  
"Yeah, yeah" Michelle replied dismissively, packing up the rest of her meager belongings into the metal canister. "You can leave once you're done disassembling the tent... I'll take care of everyone's stuff... Ordinarily I'd hand-wash it and pretend that the sheets would be the person I'm having a small grudge against at the moment as I would punch it over and over again... but I don't feel like doing anything like that right now."

Aelita nodded and picked up the bag containing the sleeping items that hadn't been tainted by the fruit juice and walked away, only stopping once to look back at Michelle, who was contentedly licking her knives again.

[Page Break]

Watching the washing machine always had some sort of rustic, peaceful charm to it, whether it would be simply watching the clothes tumble within as machine did its work or simply closing ones eyes and listening to the rhythmic sounds as the machine washed away the juice before the stains set in. This time, however, Michelle was paying attention to neither of the two, choosing instead to sharpen her newly cleaned knives while enjoying the time she had alone.

Alone. The word itself seemed to have a meaning other than what others would normally think it to be. While most people would think that being alone would be a terrible thing, being alone could very well be one of the most rewarding experiences one could have. For instance, people constantly surrounded by others would eventually get uncomfortable with the noise and would want to seek solace in a dark corner somewhere where they could think to themselves and get their thoughts sorted out. After all, silence had all but disappeared as the human society continued to grow and evolve.

As Michelle silently continued to sharpen her knives, a short buzzing sound alerted her to the present. Giving a short glance to the machine, Michelle slowly got up, swiped her ID card to unlock the dryer and moved the wet clothing to the dryer, where it would remain until the next morning. Casually stretching, and giving a short grunt in pleasure as several bones cracked, Michelle walked past the back of the building and into the underbrush. A small den was made from the dead straw-like grass- rough in texture, but enough to survive for the night. There, Michelle curled up, but did not sleep, refusing to do so until she had come up with a suitable revenge.

The human mind is an amazing tool, capable of performing calculations and running through options fast enough to daunt computers. However, like technology, it is neutral though the wielder can choose to make it do bad things or good things. Michelle put hers to good use, running through the pranks she and Joseph had used against each other during one of their prank wars several years ago. Deciding which one to use, however, was more difficult, and Michelle idly carved words on the bark of a dead tree as she tried to sort out her mind and pinning it to a wooden post with one of her daggers.

**Private Territory- no trespassing!  
Trespassers will be shot  
Survivors will be shot again**

With that done, all that was left was to write out the incoherent thoughts that threatened to hamper the insanity that is a prank war.

_**Entry # 82: **_

_Usual greetings are in order- Get out of my diary, whoever is reading this. ... Or better yet, turn around. You might just find a shotgun in your face for invading my privacy._

_I hate vans. I hate the woods. I hate trains. I hate the war. I hate the world. I hate people. Oh yeah, people. Lots and lots of people._

_I like salt. I'll probably going to get a heart attack soon. I hate cats. I like prank wars. I hate eggs. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. They say it's a strong word- but I don't see why I have to believe them, especially since there's these idiots throwing love around like it means nothing._

_"Boys are cheats and liars, they're such a big disgrace. They will tell you anything to get to second baseball, baseball, he thinks he's gonna score. If you let him go all the way then you are a-" Crap, now I've got that song stuck in my head again. I still wear an inherited wedding ring on my middle finger, but I'm not married. Ha, ha... it still works to get rid of suitors. Every time I flip the bird, two people are doing it instead of one. Stupid Towser tried to date Aelita, but then found out that she was married._

_How the heck did I get off-topic from hating everything?_

_... I hate that I just found out that Captain is indeed superior to a Commander. I hate that I miss being an Admiral. I miss being AWOL._

_"I hate stairs, planes, vans, woods, and small towns, small towns..." Dammit Francis... why'd you have to put everything you hate in a song? Now I can't get it out of my head either._

_I hate when Admiral DeGill goes on patrol on the damn ship I'm assigned to... well... before being sent here._

_I hate that I have to leave somewhere in mid-January to go back to the hell-hole that they call a Heavy-Armored Carrier._

_... I have a plan... One last attempt at true freedom... or be blown into a Google pieces just by trying. ...I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure that it's something really, really stupid.  
_

**End Entry**

It was not until half past two in the morning when a light bulb went off over Michelle's head, and her lips curled in a wicked grin. In any prank war one could call up from their memory, the two sides must choose how to battle and provide a decent counter attack to the others move. Michelle could only think of one trick good enough to best all, but like all good things, it required patience. Unfortunately for Captain Bill ("Beriothien") Nenharma, having to deal with idiots [that hardly got the information she said to them through thier thick skulls] on a constant basis had taught her a lot of patience. Having twice the amount of siblings Beriothien had was also a big plus- it taught her both thievery, silence, and stealth, particularly when sneaking Oreos under their noses. However, there still was the limiting factor of time that made it so troubling to perfectly execute. There was still time to play a few more tricks on the unfortunate Captain before the grand finale. Burying herself deep within the dead vegetation, Michelle yawned, curled into a tighter ball, and drifted into a dreamless sleep, waking up at four thirty in the morning to ransack the storage sheds for supplies.

* * *

AN: And so March ends the pick-on-Bill trimester. Pick-on-Michelle trimester begins from a few days ago (April 1) to June 30th. The host of this trimester is Beriothien (Flyboy961), who accepted having a prank war between our OCs (subsequently having a truce and then warring with each other a few days afterward).

I'm going to try to alternate between focusing on OCs and the original Lyoko gang between chapters. I think I'll include mention of Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Sissy in the next chapter.


	13. Fury of the Storm

AN: Part songfic- starring Paul Stanley's "Live to Win", which I am listening to as I am typing this. The title is by Dragonforce's song of the same name.

Beta-Read and edited by Beriothien Nenharma.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 11- Fury of the Storm  
Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Battleship "Storm"  
December 27, 2020  
13:42**

A gaunt, grizzled face peered out of the reinforced porthole, silently analyzing the scenery as he continued his daily sweep of the area. Hardened chocolate-brown eyes took in the endless blue-green color of the Atlantic Ocean, now littered with half-sunken ships, debris from battles long forgotten, and human bodies, deathly pale and with horrifying facial expressions that appeared as if their torturers were the last thing they saw before they died and were cast into the water like they were garbage. Ulrich turned his eyes away from the sight, but the image was burned into the depths of his mind like so many others. So many innocent people were trapped in between the crossfire of two sides trading bullets and lasers alike. Too many of them were captured by the maniacal AI, where unspeakably horrible things had been done to them- torture, brainwashing, forced labor, and the worst of all- conversion into monsters, where they were forced to battle against the people who they once called friends.

He sighed as Storm continued to plow through the frigid waters, sending icy spray everywhere. The trusty battleship had survived through numerous battles, often coming out with more than a scratch day after day. They had often been forced to dock at the nearest port in order to get more than the standard repairs and refueling- many times they had to cram ordinary civilians in hiding into the relative safety of Storm, pushing them behind schedule more often than not. It was during one of these diversions when they had chanced upon Aelita, fighting like a wildcat against monsters invading a city- one of the last remaining ones that had yet to succumb to XANA's forces. They had first seen her riding on one of the lupine-shaped monsters that were one of XANA's newest creations, though still in its experimental stage.

They had just finished docking and were almost immediately besieged by monsters when a large ball of light flashed into the sky and spread outwards, disintegrating the monsters that were threatening to reduce their ship to a pile of scrap metal. When they had seen her again for the second time, she was tending to the wounded, and defensively standing in front of them as they approached her and the ragged survivors. Surprised at her change of appearance, Ulrich was reluctant at first to approach her, seeing that she might mistake them for polymorphic specters that adopted similar forms a while ago and posed as helpless sailors who had been attacked during a routine check and had their ship sunk in the process of fighting off monsters. However, his ship mates convinced him to, seeing as they would both have extra protection and more hands on deck after the survivors' orientation and basic training. It took a while to convince her that they were one of the last naval forces in the world that is continuing the fight against XANA, but when they did, Aelita agreed and amiably introduced them to the sailors.

**[Flashback]**

**August 13, 2020  
Somewhere in Northwestern France  
11:59**

Ulrich Stern stood at the bridge, letting the sea air tease at his hair and taking in the scent of salted water. One foot rested on the metal guard rails and a hand rested on that knee, the other curled into a fist around his standard issue M-16. His keen eyes spotted land, and with it, bright flashes of light exchanged between flying monsters and fighter jets alike. His first thought was to turn back and divert to another port, but a sideways glance at the electronic navigator on his wrist told him that it was otherwise impossible. The fuel reserves were rapidly depleting and were in need of being refilled. So, grudgingly, Ulrich nodded to his subordinates, who began the docking process as they approached the port.

_Frustrated, degraded,  
Down before you're done_

Aelita summoned an energy field in her hand and lobbed it at a Wirewolf, smirking as it convulsed while pink sparks radiated off of its metal armor. Tortured whimpers made their way out of its muzzle as the half-monster, half-man pained under the attack. It swung its head to the side and grit its teeth, unwilling to give up. A low growl, slightly distorted from the armoring, echoed from the recesses of its throat before it darted towards Aelita with unnatural speed. Before the pink-turned-white-haired female could react, she was swatted out of the sky as the Wirewolf used the tall buildings to its advantage and rapidly bounced off of their surfaces, simultaneously clenching and un-clenching its long metal claws to retain both traction and momentum. Aelita landed in a crouch on a deserted road cratered by multiple bombings and littered with abandoned cars, facing her tormentor as it gracefully leapt from a nearby structure and landed in front of her. Aelita huffed in frustration glared at the mechanical menace through gleaming sapphire eyes.

_Rejection, depression,  
Can't get what you want…_

It wasn't as if this the first time she had met a Wirewolf- she had converted tens of them into scrap metal within minutes every time they reared their ugly faces in her direction. The Wirewolf bared its teeth threateningly and circled the downed female in a predatory manner, trying to catch her off guard. Aelita, however, instinctively circled too, making sure to keep her sight on the Wirewolf and prepared herself in case it attacked. However, the more recent versions of the Wirewolves were more clever than their predecessors, almost as cunning as the Biowolves in terms of their thought process. The Wirewolf went onto its haunches, pausing in mid-circle. Its ears flattened against its head, and the metal-clad former human launched into the air, intent on slicing Aelita into unidentifiable pieces.

Aelita rolled out of the way, under the great beast's stomach, and onto its back. The Wirewolf snarled and tried to buck her off, but Aelita clung on, gritting her teeth and wrapping her arms around its torso even tighter. The Wirewolf howled in frustration and rolled over multiple times, hoping it would shake its enemy off. Aelita cried in pain as three hundred and eighty pounds of metal momentarily forced the air out of her lungs and crushed her delicate wings as she was protectively holding them close to her back. Aelita grew dizzy as the world spun in circles. Her lungs screamed for air and her bones felt like they were able to completely break under the monster's weight. Aelita roared in fury as she righted the Wirewolf and slammed it against a slab of rock. It whimpered in pain and tried in vain once again to shake Aelita off, barreling through the war-ravaged city in a zig-zag pattern and heading towards the shoreline. Aelita clung on, summoning the Sword of the Living and holding it in her right hand.

"Yah! Yah!" Aelita shouted, slapping the fuller against its haunches and urging it forward.

Risking her life in the span of two seconds, Aelita reached behind her and removed the thick steel chain slung on her back that was used to rescue trapped survivors. Doubling the chain, Aelita waited until it opened its mouth again to howl in disappointment before inserting the middle of the chain in its muzzle and jerking it, along with the mechanical menace, upwards. A whine made its way through the Wirewolf's throat as it tried to loosen the chain from its mouth by jerking its head forward and to the side. Aelita growled and used the steel chain as reigns, forcing it to the side and slamming it against a decrepit building. Tired and defeated, the Wirewolf merely howled in disappointment and decreased its run to a slow trot.

Loud booming sounds accompanied by bright flashes of light caught Aelita's attention. Briefly looking towards the center of the city and seeing that the rebels were able to fend off another wave of XANA's monsters, she gave a brief nod in their direction before turning towards the pier, where the bright flashes and battleship cannons sounded in the distance. Sheathing her sword, she made sure the scabbard was securely attached to the worn leather belt she had on before giving the steel chains a small shake.

"Mush" she commanded, giving the Wirewolf a small kick in the side.

The monster obeyed, running towards the pier that had often received rebel ships picking up supplies and refueling. As the burnt forestry was clearing, she could see the faint outlines of monsters attacking a battleship, which was valiantly trying to fend off the attackers.

_You asked me how I made my way,  
You ask me everywhere and why,  
You hang on every word I say,  
But the truth sounds like a lie…_

Ulrich growled and barked out commands to his fellow subordinates as they coordinated the battle. The Battleship's cannons rapidly blasted shells at the exposed Aquatic Dragons that were suited to marine attacks in almost the best possible way. Since the Aquatic Dragons had the ability to mess with sonar systems, they were left with using the naked eye and underwater cameras to spot them. The battleship rocked violently as an Aquadra- the marine's shortened term for an Aquatic Dragon- rammed into the right side of Storm.

"Shit! We got one on the Starboard side" Ulrich muttered, blindly launching a torpedo through the water- the dammed light refracting coats that the Aquadras had made those hellish monsters a lot more sneakier when they were skulking about around damaged ships.

The cylindrical weapon wove its way through the water, fragmenting upon contact with one of the aforementioned monsters. Almost instantly, the Aquadra fizzled into existence, clearly angered at being spotted. Ulrich merely had to bark out the coordinates before the Marines were all over it, showering it with weapon fire until it spasmed from the amount of damage and sunk to the bottom of the ocean, never to rise again. Turning his head towards the other attacking Aquadras that had intentionally exposed themselves by ramming into ships, he visibly paled as he saw the damage indicator stating that Storm wouldn't be able to stay in one piece for very long. He narrowed his eyes as an Aquadra rose out of the water after expending its torpedoes, staring at Ulrich with lifeless eyes.

_Live to win, 'till you die, 'till the light dies in your eyes,  
Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting till you fall!_

Aelita slowed at the edge of the burnt forest, seeing and yet not seeing Ulrich standing on the bridge, gripping his assault rifle and shooting it at the Aquatic Dragon. Though she both believed and did not believe that she had seen his face before, being so familiar, taking down the threat posed towards the crew of the soon-to-be-doomed battleship was at the top of her list of priorities. She heard Ulrich distantly curse as he scrambled to reload after using his whole clip, but the bullets had spilled out of his hands after an Aquadra slammed its tail against the ship. Drawing her blade from her side, she angled it such that the blade glinted in the harsh sunlight, diverting the monsters' attention from Ulrich.

"Noro lim" Aelita shouted, urging the Wirewolf forward towards the shoreline.

The Wirewolf, however, grew terrified at entering the water- being made of electronic parts not meant for aquatic fighting- and abruptly stopped- just what Aelita wanted. Aelita let go of the steel chain reigns and sailed through the air with sword in tow, using her slightly battered wings to propel her body towards one of the assailing monsters.

"Impact" She shouted, thrusting her blade into the monster's head.

It shrieked in agony and writhed in pain, trying to shake Aelita off. Aelita however, merely dug her blade in deeper and hung on, only letting go when the serpentine monster capsized and fell onto the beach.

"One down, three to go" Aelita remarked, frowning when she saw XANA's air support in the form of three squadrons of Mantas to back up the Aquatic Dragons. "Well, shit" she remarked, removing her blade from the Dragon and pointing it towards the oncoming monsters.

_Obsessive, compulsive, suffocate your mind,  
Confusion, delusions, kill your dreams in time..._

Ulrich stared, open mouthed at what he just saw. A familiar pinkette turned white-haired that died- that should have died- was alive and well, and kicking ass by the look of things. He watched as Aelita bravely pointed her oil-soaked blade towards the other monsters that had apparently forgotten about them before launching into the air with her ethereal wings and going into battle with the Mantas. A lazy swipe of her blade easily cleaved a monster in half before returning laser fire forced her to dart to and fro.

Only five minutes into the fight and already it was locked into a stalemate. Aelita snarled as laser fire nearly clipped her wings. Dodging, she sheathed her blade and summoned an orb of pure yellow-white energy that grew bigger and bigger, absorbing the monsters' laser blasts and enlarging until it was twice her height. With a grunt, she pushed it forwards. The massive energy orb slowly inched towards the monsters, gaining speed and momentum as it fell through the air. The monsters shrieked and attempted to flee, but the orb expanded until the area was filled in brilliant light. When it receded, the monsters were completely gone- no trace remained of them save for the Wirewolf that patiently awaited Aelita.

Smirking, Aelita drifted downwards and rubbed the Wirewolf's muzzle once her feet touched the sandy shores. Ulrich hopped off of Storm and onto the pier, intending to get closer to the anomaly, but Aelita mounted the Wirewolf again and sped off towards the city, blade in hand and swinging it in the air yelling war cries at the top of her lungs. Slinging his freshly reloaded M-16 onto his back, he indicated some stunned sailors to follow him with a short hand signal before taking off in the direction where- he hoped- Aelita went. Making his way through the charred remains of what was once green and lively vegetation, he chanced upon the outskirts of the ruined city. Slowing his run to a cautious walk, he slowly removed the Assault Rifle from his back, pointing it around the city and waving his men forward when he felt reasonably sure that the area was secure.

_You ask me how I took the pain...  
Crawled up from my lowest low,_

Finding Aelita wasn't difficult- it was a small city and you can't exactly ignore a winged person riding on a monster with a white aura. She was tending to the wounded, ripping a semi-clean shirt into scraps to wrap around injuries. Now that there was no immediate danger present, she had reverted to her regular form, but though she was shorter, there was no mistaking the wings sprouting from her back, the dirtied pink hair shining in the light, her voice as she gently talked with a frightened child. Beside them, the Wirewolf rested on the ground in an unusually docile manner, allowing children to gambol and play with each other on its back. Ulrich stepped behind her, lowering his Assault Rifle and urging his men to do the same with a silent nod.

"Uhm... excuse me?"

The female whirled around to meet his eyes, hissing and spreading her wings defensively to cover the huddled survivors as much as possible. She regarded him with suspicion born from instinct, gazing in his brown eyes with her steely emerald ones. Drawing a pistol from her belt and pointing the muzzle of the gun at the hollow of his throat, she narrowed her eyes at him, silently daring him to move. Ulrich dropped his Assault Rifle to the ground and raised his hands in submission just as the multiple clicking of safety caches going off warned that the marines following Ulrich weren't too keen on her.

The pinkette was dressed in the same uniform Ulrich had last seen her in, albeit more tattered and the XANA symbols completely removed. The bright scarlet fabric was more subdued, and the form fitting suit was caked in dried blood along with thick, black oil and gritty grey grime collected from tussling with monsters and rolling on the ground as she wrestled with them in a dance that simply fit the notion of life-or-death. Multiple scratches that had borne testament to her skills also had torn the uniform to shreds in some places were covered up by metal armor made by the mass-produced monsters Aelita had defeated in the past. An upside-down XANA symbol was smeared on her right eye with black war paint, symbolizing her former involuntary servitude to the maniacal AI, though she herself did not remember any part of it. Modified red and black combat boots salvaged from deceased humans came up to her kneecaps and converged into a point. Black fingerless gloves covered her hands with small spikes protruding outward where the knuckles were, covered in a black, oily substance that reeked of rotting carcasses. Emerald eyes that once held comfort in them now only bore daggers within them, the pupils were hollow, holding no indication of the life she once lived.

"Declare yourself" was her curt reply, never taking her gaze nor her gun muzzle from Ulrich.  
"Admiral Ulrich Stern" he replied just as sharply.

The young girl Aelita had been tending to appeared at Aelita's legs, gently holding onto one and staring at the newcomers with wide, frightened eyes. Aelita placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, holding her close.

"Uh... hello, are you listening?" Ulrich inquired once more, immediately getting the aforementioned pink-haired female's attention.  
"Affirmative, Admiral Stern"  
"My squad offers protection for you and the survivors here" Ulrich stated in a matter-of-fact manner.

Aelita was silent for a moment, contemplating his words. Then, suddenly, her free hand lashed out and grabbed one of his, bringing it closer to her. Ulrich nearly winced at the crushing force Aelita applied to his wrist, but being in the marines had trained him well in hiding his physical discomfort from others. She squeezed his hand once before relinquishing the majority her grip and gently holding it in her unclenched hand. Lowering her head though keeping her eyes trained on Ulrich, she carefully sniffed his hand, grunting in approval as she did so after a moment's worth of taking in his scent. Before Ulrich could say anything to question her, something warm and wet grazed his palm, coating it in saliva. Ulrich stiffened in surprise momentarily before he felt a set of teeth gently bite down on his flesh. Ulrich winced in pain as she bit down on a soft part of his hand, though her teeth didn't break his skin and cause warm red liquid to pool- the nips were light enough to cause minor pain but weren't entirely painful.

"You marines really need to use deodorant... especially if you're a guy" Aelita stated once she finished with her inspection, raising her head to meet his eyes with a much kinder look. "You check out as a human- pulse, warm blood, sweat, and even," Aelita put on a slightly disgusted look "body odor. If you don't find it completely weird, I often bite possible humans... just to make sure that they have nerves- polymorphic specters obviously don't have any, nor do they have blood, a heart beat... whatever you desire to compare them with to humans"

With that, Aelita let go of his hand, allowing him to gently rub the spot where her fierce grip had once been. It was bright cherry red, and Ulrich was sure that it was going to turn up as a bruise later on.

"Uhm... thank you?"  
"My apologies" said Aelita, straightening up and allowing a brief smile to flash across her face. "As I may have said before, there have been many polymorphic specters lurking about, and I always have to perform a check before I allow survivors to join the group of rebel forces here." With that, she extended a hand and shook his in a cordial handshake.

"My name's Aelita... or at least I think it is. I really don't remember much about myself to tell you, but all that I recall is that I was reborn from ruins and wandered through the forest area, destroying these... things that either tried to kill or capture me. I found these guys and well... the rest is history. They protected me, and so I now repay them with the same gesture"  
"Ulrich Stern, as I've said before" Ulrich said, letting go of her hand and ending the handshake in the process. "I lead a fleet of ships through the Atlantic Ocean and help coordinate attacks. We're part of the last remaining naval forces "  
"You look familiar," Aelita stated in a-matter-of-fact tone as she tipped her head to the side. "and I mean really familiar"

Ulrich scratched the back of his head, debating to whether tell her of her past, but decided against it for the time being. First priority was to secure Storm from taking any more unnecessary damage- memory lane could come later.

"Yeah, I do don't I?" Ulrich said as he picked up his M-16 and beckoned her and the ragged group of survivors to follow. "I'll have to explain about that later, though" he added, running back to the battleship's location. "We have to repair our battleship before more of those things show up."

Aelita nodded and motioned the ragged group of survivors along, quirking an eyebrow when the Wirewolf walked up to her and rubbed its metal muzzle against the side of her leg. A soft crooning sound that hardened veterans familiar with the snarling, blood-curdling sounds monsters usually made would have never imagined the feared Wirewolves to make. Though it was distorted by the metal that encased its throat, a sense of longing was easily detected by the trained ear. It gave its tail a small swish before rearing up and gently placing its front paws on Aelita, the latter slightly stumbling backwards under its weight before righting herself. A soft whimper escaped from its open maw, and one would imagine that if it still had a tongue, it would have licked its new master's hand and face. Instead, it improvised and roughly seized Aelita's arm within its mouth before gently clamping its teeth down on the appendage, growling and refusing to release it even when ordered to do so.

"Bad Mister Chew!" Aelita gently scolded, giving the monster a small tap on its muzzle.

The Wirewolf whined and its ears pressed flat against its body, reluctantly letting go of Aelita's arm.

"I know you don't like water, so you have to watch out for other survivors that still might be here, okay?" Aelita said while rubbing the bases of its ears and patting its armored head.

A Marine leaned closer to Ulrich and started to whisper in his ear, most likely warning him about not spending too much time here. Ulrich nodded in reply, mumbling a few words to the pinkette, who had placed her head onto the monster's muzzle with her eyes closed, communicating with it in low tones. Aelita opened an eye, staring at Ulrich silently before drawing away and kneeling down, bending over until she was at its eye level. With both of her hands, she cupped its head gently.

"Growl you, growl" she ordered, but the Wirewolf refused to growl a goodbye, instead gently grabbing her hand and biting down on it, leaving teeth marks.

Aelita nodded and, with the thick oil that spilled from destroyed monsters onto the deserted street strewn with debris, drew an upside down XANA symbol on the beast's chest and another on its head, signifying its new freedom from XANA's clutches.

"Go on, get!" Aelita ordered, pointing towards the unknown.

The monster obeyed, and with a swish of its tail and a few strides of its powerful legs, disappeared into the dark.

**17:24**

_Step by step and day by day,  
'Till there's one last breath to go..._

Aelita glared at her roommate in silence, furious that the armed forces had somehow roped her into going into the Marines. Still, they had made her a Captain after she demonstrated her powers while defending them from an oncoming mass of monsters. The stark metal walls gave off an unwelcoming feel, and cold radiated off of the metal. Aelita cleared her throat quote loudly, trying to get the other marine's attention.

Her roommate, Michelle A. Fell, lazily sprawled out on her bed, merely licked a finger and turned a page in the book she was reading, already accustomed to ignoring people. The spare Marine uniform, as well as the cap that came with it hung on a rounded metal hook placed nearby the beds. White earphones, shaped to snugly fit around the ear, played music loud enough from a modified black and red Tablet PC to make conversation nearly impossible. Impatient, Aelita cleared her throat again, causing Michelle to briefly glance at her before returning her gaze to her novel.

"Commander Fell?" Aelita questioned roughly, dumping her meager belongings onto the stiff mattress that served as her bed.  
"At your service, miss. You must be Captain Schaeffer" Michelle replied, still not meeting her eyes, choosing instead to focus intently on the rock music playing and the book she was reading- 'Sun-Tsu's Art of War'.  
"It's rude to ignore people" Aelita commented dryly, placing herself next to her belongings on the bed.

Michelle sighed and removed the earphones from her ears, intently staring at the pink-haired female through her glasses.

"You have my attention, Captain"  
"You've obviously been assigned as my roommate. I would like you to show me around this vessel sometime" Aelita intoned, staring back with dull Emerald orbs.  
"I would really love to, but I just got transferred here a week ago"

Aelita grunted in response and did not press for an explanation, already busy with the process of unpacking the little belongings that the Marines had given her.

"They know I'm claustrophobic... this certainly is a good punishment, I suppose" Michelle trailed off, loudly shutting the book closed and sitting up straight. "Why are you here?"  
"Confidential" Aelita quickly replied, wriggling uncomfortably as her wings silently screamed for freedom, unaccustomed to being bound.  
"You gotta pee?" Michelle asked; one eyebrow quirked in amusement. "If you have to go, just go… but not here, obviously"

Aelita was about to reply when the ship suddenly lurched violently, throwing both females to the floor.

"What the hell!" Aelita interjected angrily, disentangling herself from her roommate.  
"This is all SNAFU! It's FUBAR" Michelle added in between fits of giggles, slapping on her uniform cap hastily and allowing it to slide down her hair into a rather silly lopsided position.  
"Action Stations! Action Stations! This is..." an angry female voice on the crackling PA announced before a blast of static cut off what she had to say next.

Both females exchanged a short nod to the other before simultaneously bolting from the room and heading to the upper floors until they reached the deck.

_Live to win, 'till you die, 'till the light dies in your eyes,_  
_Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting till you fall,_

Rear Admiral Yumi Ishiyama grimaced as she finished the announcement, a grim expression etched onto her face as she watched the chaos from the relative safety of the lower decks unfold on the bridge. Unwilling to stand around and do nothing, she backed away from the PA system, heading towards a large reinforced steel door that housed weapons of various power and range. Pressing a hand against the glowing blue panel, the mechanical lock scanned the hand as well as checking the rest of her biometrics against the information stored in Storm's systems. A soft chime sounded, and the heavy clinking of multiple locks shifting to make way clanged loudly. With a soft hiss, the door opened, revealing the weapons hung from shelves. Ammunition for the specific weapon's type was in neatly stacked green and silver metal canisters behind the weapon.

Reaching forward, Yumi grabbed an automatic shotgun, checked its magazine to make sure that it was fully loaded, and crammed some extra ammunition in the multiple pockets sewn into her uniform before leaving the bridge. Kicking open the metal door that isolated the lower decks from the outside world, she let off a few shots at various monsters swarming around the ship. The Flying Mantas screeched in anger as Yumi neatly felled one of their brethren, diving down at the raven haired female and firing their lasers at her.

Instinct flowing through her veins, Yumi ran away from the approaching monsters, away from the lasers that promised a world of hurt if they managed to make contact with her. Recalling the countless battles they had in Lyoko, she decided to take a page out of Odd's book and attempt to imitate what he had done so many times. Leaping as high as she physically could as a Manta dive bombed her, she landed neatly on its back. The Manta shrieked in surprise and tried to buck her off by jerking wildly and swerving to the side multiple times. Yumi grunted and tried to retain her hold on the monster by digging her fingernails into its metal covering, but groaned loudly as she felt herself slipping off. Hawk-like screeching above her position warned her of the threat that still existed above her.

Determination kicked in, and Yumi resolved to stay alive by shifting her weight onto the Manta again in a prone position, using her automatic shotgun to repeatedly bash at the Manta's head and force it to comply with her. A kick to the Manta she was riding on forced it to descend at a reasonable rate. The Mantas pursuing her, who expected her to rise, screeched in frustration as they collided with one another, causing the raven haired female to laugh. Something else caught her eye, however, diverting her attention towards the new problem. Yumi struggled to get into a standing position as she saw three other Mantas gracefully flying in front of the Battleship. Small white skull-like bombs dropped from the normally covered hole in their bellies.

"Oh shit" she muttered, urging her Manta to fly closer to them. "Ulrich!" She shouted into her gauntlet. "Manta Bombs at twelve o' clock!"

_Let another round begin, live to win,  
Yeah, live, yeah, win..._

Ulrich heard his wife's shout and turned towards the bow, eyes widening in shock as he saw the small bombs hover ominously at his ship. He saw Yumi, riding on the back of a gracefully soaring Manta ready her shotgun.

"Decrease speed to 5 knots!" He barked at a nearby Marine. "Forward cannons, shoot on sight at twelve o'clock, but be careful- we have a man out there who currently is riding on one of the Mantas!"  
"Affirmative, sir!"

Careful to avoid the Manta in question along with its rider, who almost fit perfectly into the night due to her black ensemble, the Marines manning the battleship's guns swiveled the forward cannons into position and began firing at the Manta mines themselves, wincing as blinding light repeatedly flashed from the exploding mines. The shrapnel from the destruction of some of the aforementioned floating weapons decimated the others of their own kind, making it easier for the Marines' clean-up job. Machine gun fire shredded the Mantas' underbellies, the bullets embedding into the weak metal coverings.

Yumi guided the Manta to a location above its fellow monsters, shooting round after round of bullets and smirking in satisfaction when she saw them make contact. A wounded Manta spiraled downwards before plunging into the water, perilously close to Storm. It gave a shrill cry in agony as it squirmed in the water, its wings and whip like tail flailing helplessly shortly before Storm plowed through its body, reducing it to nothing but scrap metal pieces, which slowly sunk into the water as the battleship moved on.

"I'm sure glad Akihito is with Sissy in America" Yumi grumbled, guiding her Manta to a safe distance above the battleship, leaping off the Manta and swiftly decapitating it with a shot to where she thought its face to be. "He wouldn't have to deal with all this crap"

_Live to win, 'till you die, 'till the light dies in your eyes_  
_Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting 'till you fall_

The Manta landed on the deck with a loud thud, smashing it into more pieces, which scattered in all directions on the hard metal. Thick, black oil flowed out of its damaged valves as if it were blood, staining the deck. Yumi needed only to glance at her handiwork for a few seconds until she felt satisfied with her victory. With that, she briskly walked away from the corpse of the former beast, hopped up the steps, and entered the bridge.

Glass, shattered from the impact of the monsters' wrath, lay in fragments on the floor, sparkling in the artificial light the overhead lighting system provided. She lay her shotgun on the dashboard, briefly glancing at the numerous panels which repeatedly flashed areas which damage sustained from the battle in yellow and red based on the severity of the damage. Seeing as the engineers and the repairmen would already be swarming the areas in question, Yumi ignored them, and moved on towards the empty seat that overlooked the entirety of the bridge. Normally, it would be occupied by a Vice Admiral, but the Vice Admiral had died weeks ago, leaving the position open to qualified personnel who wanted to temporarily fill in the position.

Wearily placing her worn body onto the overstuffed seat, Yumi deeply sighed and allowed the comfort to ease her tired bones. With a black-booted foot, she kicked off the shards of glass, wincing as she saw that some of them were coated in a red substance. Some of the blood on the glass had already began to dry, turning from the bright scarlet coloring to a more subdued shade of red.

The body of a dead Marine was slumped against the corner, dried blood crusting on multiple cuts on his face, arms, and legs. A large amount of his torso missing suggested that he had been in the bridge as a Manta fired its laser through the glass and into his body. The larger shards of glass had cut into his skin, and the laser had burned a hole right to his heart. The carcass was still gripping his bloodied pistol, spent bullets from other Marines lying around his bare feet. Someone had entered the bridge before Yumi, and had stolen some of his armor along with his combat boots. Yumi shook her head and for the umpteenth time this month, cursed XANA's existence and for all the problems he's been causing the human population and the world in general.

While it was true that computers were highly organized and recognizing chaos would mean a system shutdown or actions which would engage programs to destroy the cause of disruption to its order. Humans were, by contrast, vastly different from computers and needed chaos to function properly in the world. Therefore, XANA, recognizing chaos within the human world, saw the solution as to exterminate the human race- after all, it didn't need them anymore. XANA could function autonomously, and it could construct drones that could perform ordered repairs. Robots didn't know pain, nor did they know what sleeping or eating were- those were petty topics compared to scheduled upgrades and modifications to its software and exterior capabilities.

With that thought, Yumi's eyes drifted to the deceased Marine and sighed for the poor man, wishing that he could have died in honor and lay in the spot he took his final gasp of air in without a cowardly thief desecrating the body. Though the Marine probably wouldn't have minded his armor removed from his dead body so long as it was used for better purposes such as ensuring the survival of the Marines, it still felt... wrong, Yumi thought, clenching and un-clenching a hand. The Marine's eyes were still open, revealing blue eyes that once shone with vitality and pride in his hard work, now dulled as the light had left them. His mouth was slightly ajar; drool had made its way out of the corner of his mouth and onto his shirt, landing on the sewn patch that bore his name- Alexander Graham. Alex's teeth were covered in blood- possibly due to vomiting blood as he lay dying from pain, his nerves screaming in pain from the cuts generously given from the broken glass. With the laser wound instantly cauterizing the area where it hit, he couldn't bleed to death- flying backwards and hitting a steel wall could have possibly contributed to his death.

Turning her eyes to the scene past the broken windows, she took in the bright sweeping searchlights- the usual account for those killed in action and who was still alive. Occasionally, they would get a Marine that went MIA, but in all actuality, they had panicked, thinking it was the end and fleeing to the basement of the battleship, where they lived there for days, hiding in an extremely cramped spot, suffering delusions from not sleeping in days, and living off canned congee. Blowing a strand of hair in irritation, Yumi fingered her wristband and reported her location to the attendance office, as well as reporting the name of the dead Marine that lay mere feet from her.

_Day by day, kickin' all the way, I'm not cavin' in_  
_Let another round begin, live to win_,  
_Live to win,_  
_Live to win,_  
_Yeah! live! yeah! win!_

"Headcount!" Admiral DeGill shouted, watching as the marines scrambled into neat rows, instantly snapping into attention once he passed them by.

The emergency lights were on, brightly casting artificial lights that swept the battle-damaged battleship. His beefy hands navigated the holopanel on his electronic wrist bracket, scrolling through the list of names that matched the identification picture of each marine. Clearing his throat, he started to shout of the names of the Marines, spit flying from his mouth and landing onto his grizzled beard.

"Davison!"  
"Present"  
"Almazan!"  
"Present, sir!"  
"James!"  
"Here"  
"Fell!"

Upon receiving no response, he peered with his hawk-like eyes at the Marines, scanning each and every one of their faces.

"Fell!" he barked once more, and not getting a single response. "Fuck... I won't have a man not present and accounted for" he grumbled, checking the recently updated KIA list. His face turned a shade of beet red upon not finding the name "Michelle A. Fell" on the list of the deceased.

"Where the hell is she!" Admiral DeGill barked, causing several Marines nearby to neatly snap to attention once again.

Michelle looked down from the edge of the lower deck at the dark water sloshing below her, sending its icy spray in all directions. Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the chain-laced white-painted steel railings that normally prevented the marines from accidentally falling into the water.

"Suicide dive!" she loudly declared, pushing her weight off of the railing and swan-dived into the water.

The resulting splash attracted the attention of several seamen cleaning the floors.

Michelle gasped at the sharp contrast in temperature, flailing about due to the water-soaked uniform weighing her body down. Survival instincts kicked in and her thrashing in the water increased. Though she knew perfectly damn well how to swim, being weighed down by actual clothing was very different from just being clothed in a swim suit. Taking in a deep breath, she dipped her head under the water, refusing to open her eyes as the water slammed against her form. Her lungs screamed for air, but Michelle refused to surface for the precious oxygen, at least, not yet. Slowly but surely, her thrashing lessened, and her arms and legs moved as one. Using the breaststroke- so far the only swimming technique she had nearly perfected, Michelle swam away from the battleship, only poking her head out of the water to breathe when she needed to.

"There she is!"

Michelle swore, and cursed the bright red and white reflective stripes running down the back of her uniform that allowed their searchlights to spot her as she came up for air. Sighing in resignation, she silently tread water as a heavy object fell into the water- a speed boat designed for quick and easy rescues.

**[Page Break]**

**Present Day**

Ulrich Stern continued to stare out of the re-enforced porthole, now wondering about the warfare continuing on the shores. America was still holding out, but barely, having its capital nearly captured several times within the past few days. China had fallen yesterday due to internal disputes and multiple people siding with XANA instead of their oppressive government in the hopes that the world, after being cleansed and repopulated by XANA, would lead to a better tomorrow. There was no question that many of those people had an encounter with the Scyphozoa, which was still classified as one of XANA's most deadliest weapons due to its near-indestructibility and its ability to mess with people's minds and turn them against their own friends and family. It was probably only sheer luck that kept the Lyoko Warriors out of its slimy grip.

Turning around to meet his crew, he gave a curt nod towards Odd's direction, who managed the navigation of the battleship as well as continually ensuring the safety of the crew from any environmental dangers that posed a risk to their health while navigating through the treacherous ocean. He was currently overseeing a new project that had just emerged from the developmental stage and was now being tested; it was a system that identifies electrical currents, no matter how small or weak they were, outside of the battleship. It would become and important tool in order to detect and thwart undersea surprise attacks from XANA's monsters. They had already taken approximately a half of their fleet in just this month, and they needed weapon reinforcements and fresh Marines. Furrowing his brow, Ulrich stole one last glance at the raging sea before fully addressing Odd.

"Set sail to Area 4, Sector 27" he ordered in a crisp voice. "We have business with the 45th Regiment"**  
**

* * *

AN: And so this wraps up another nice chapter of Ascension. The part where Aelita meets Michelle was supposed (from the part where Aelita glares at Michelle to where Michelle asks if Aelita had to go to the bathroom) to be in a collection of stories relating to Code: Ascension (almost like what Beriothien did, though each story is a multiple chapter, so as to not annoy the fans looking for stories focusing on the central characters of Code Lyoko and not OCs), but that idea was scrapped and this little tidbit was added onto this chapter instead.

The next chapter... is yet to be planned. I have all of Easter Break to write some of it out in between with experimenting with Left 4 Dead fanfictions.


	14. Skin On Our Teeth

**AN: **Some parts of this fanfiction were written by Beriothien Nenharma as thanks for my participation in writing a chapter of his story- "Afterwards". It's at the ending parts of the chapter, and you'll easily recognize it if it seems to go into the realm of techno babble.

The equation to calculate the power of the Ghostly Wail unlocked during Ascended form (this power being a replacement the "Final Toll" power to balance it out) is P= 2(x+2)^x , where P= Power and x=Seconds the Ghostly Wail is in effect.

The equation to calculate the power drain from the Ghostly Wail is D= 5(x+3)4x - 3, where D is the amount of power drain, x = seconds the Ghostly Wail is in effect, and D is less than or equal to 3,000 and greater than 0. X cannot equal -3.

If the equations above don't make any sense, it was probably my rabbit's fault.

* * *

**Code: Ascension Chapter 12- Skin on our Teeth  
[Northern] London, Britain  
December 31, 2020  
18:42**

"Assist in the rescue" Michelle imitated Commander Anthrax, sarcastically rolling her eyes and lightly punching John in the shoulder. "Well John, since you are my copilot for today, you are going to have a crash course in flying a Boeing 777- literally!"  
"Am I going to survive?"  
"Of course! I always take care of my passengers- after all; a good landing makes people happy!" Michelle chirped happily, looking through the multi-layered glass windshield at the ragged survivors heading toward the plane below.

Most of the survivors themselves were probably the paranoid ones- the people that had barricaded themselves in reinforced steel bunkers underground and had been proclaiming the end of the world for several years. There, they felt sure that they were safe from any attacks, including biological warfare and nuclear doom. After the second day of war, after learning about the possibility of polymorphic specters slipping within their ranks in order to kill the surviving colonies from the inside out, they had turned on each other, slashing at their friends and family with knives just to see if they would bleed.

In addition, they had then closed their safe houses and refused to admit new survivors into their group, no matter how badly wounded the said survivor was. Their paranoia had eroded their being into husks of their former self, convinced that the living survivors outside were contaminated by the deadly pathogens being transmitted through the air, the water, and through other living creatures. However, it was only their dwindling supplies since the fourth month of war that convinced them to seek outside help, mainly assistance from the military in supplies and emergency evacuation.

Being that Michelle was one of the only pilots with experience flying planes other than fighter jets, Commander Anthrax had put her on the list of pilots assigned to do rescue missions. Michelle, on the other hand, suspected it was because he was almost blown to bits during Christmas and she never exactly gave a damn whether her bombs hit the target or not. Either way, all pilots assigned to rescue missions were crammed into planes undamaged from the bombing raids on airports to fly typically ungrateful survivors- they usually bemoaned the separation from their personal feelings and desires instead of focusing on the fact that there were people who risked their lives to ensure the safety of their asses.

Usually, Boeings and Airbuses equipped with defense mechanisms were used, as they were able to transport hundreds of people at a time. In addition, there were approximately seven or eight fighter jets that accompanied the plane- a convoy system instituted to both ward away potential attacks and to engage all threats that posed a safety risk. The pilots that would fly the said commercial plane would ride along in a two-seater fighter jet, before switching to the commercial plane to fly it.

Surprisingly, they had not encountered any resistance when they received approximately a hundred and ten survivors from Germany. They had however, encountered a few patrolling Hornets while they were flying towards London to pick up another hundred survivors from London. The escorts had quickly dispatched the pests, and were now circling in a defensive pattern while the big jet and it's cargo sat on the ground to take on passengers and fuel. Since London was the last leg of the mission, and a quick hop away from the 45th Regiment base, refueling the plane wouldn't take long. However, embarking the survivors and their belongings onto the plane would. Once they finally got to the base, the airplane would have the remainder of its fuel siphoned to power other jets and would be taken apart to build another fighter jet.

Briefly glancing through the open cockpit door, Michelle nodded as the last of the survivors and their belongings were packed into the plane, the moveable stairway shifted away from the plane, and both the airplane and the cockpit doors were locked and secured for takeoff. While Colonel Sheppard skillfully adjusted the coordinates and the commercial plane's digital systems, Michelle momentarily hesitated before activating the PA system.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain, Commander Fell speaking. Will all of you lazy bums please take a moment to read the damn safety information in your seat belt pocket- I am not your mother, and therefore I cannot- what? …Fine, I'll be nice to them. This plane is equipped with standard defense mechanisms along with eight fighter jets provided by the 45th Regiment accompanying us for the flight. So will the ladies and gents please fasten their seat belts and prepare for the ride of your life!"

The plane along with a couple of its escorts slowly lumbered onto the emergency runway- the main runway had been cluttered with the remnants of planes long killed by XANA's missiles and was cratered with deep holes caused by falling bombs. The emergency runway was shorter than the main one by a few thousand feet, which would make takeoff trickier especially since they were flying a large plane, as emergency runways were obviously only meant for planes landing because of an unforeseen event occurring- a passenger having a heart attack and the plane having to divert to a nearby airport being an example. It was fortunate that it was nighttime now, since the most direct route towards the base from this location would be pointing towards the sun at one point of the flight during the day, which could obviously assist any potentially attacking monsters.

"Lone Wolf, this is Foxtrot Bravo Niner-Six-One preparing for takeoff, over" John spoke into the set, double checking the radio frequency.  
"Foxtrot Bravo Niner-Six-One, you are cleared for takeoff, over" Commander Anthrax replied over the set. "Initiating flight tracker in three seconds"  
"Copy that, over"  
"Preparing take off momentarily… All systems go… Dimming cabin lights and turning all air packs on"* said Michelle.  
"Are you ready?"  
"Yeah"  
"Let's do it!"

**[Page Break]**

**19:10**

The harsh artificial light bore down on the only two people in the room. One was grimly frowning and reviewing security feeds on the main security center's computers while the other was nervously looking over his shoulder at the information compiled onto the screens. On some of the screens were various security tapes taken around the hospital in various places while other screens displayed the electronic key cards along with their owners' names, time and point of entry and time and point of exit. Commander Matthew Anthrax frowned as he momentarily glanced away from the list of the key card codes to see that camera #24 had been recording nothing but a dark room- the same dark room in which multiple murders were committed.

"Who was the idiot that forgot to activate night vision for camera #24" Matthew snapped, swiveling the chair around to meet the petrified Sergeant Mark Towser with his fingers tented and his legs crossed.  
"By my records, sir, the night vision mode was on before it had turned off somehow. Maybe one of the personnel working this station at the time had been negligent and had accidentally turned it-"  
"Night vision mode isn't a button that is easily pressed" the Commander grunted angrily, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You have to enter a specific code in order to turn it on or off. Only medical personnel have that access so that they can watch over their patients in case the medical instruments alerting them to their patients' statuses fail."

Turning back around to face the monitors, his frown deepened as his ears faintly detected the sounds of the attack, as well as the bloody gurgles of the victims doomed to die from the small speakers built in to the computer.

"Do we know if we have a motivation for the murders?" Matthew nonchalantly asked, raising an eyebrow as he prepared to hear the other man's explanation.  
"Well... we believe it is either sabotage- like the specter taking out specific people that know intimate details about the base, or it could be a pure terror tactic."  
"Sticking to your first suggestion, do we have any leads?" he asked, still not taking his eyes away from the security monitors.  
"No sir, they have not yet detected any recognizable biometrics from the killer."  
"Who's the idiot leading the investigation?"  
"I believe you are, sir."  
"Are you calling me a fool?" Matthew angrily snapped, rising out of his chair threateningly and turning towards the frightened officer.  
"Y...You don't need me to look like a fool, s...sir" Sergeant Towser stuttered, shifting uncomfortably.  
"You're darn right I don't need you to make me look like a-!" he stopped abruptly, realizing what he was about to say. "I am going to gut you like a Cornish game hen" he growled threateningly.  
"I mean anything by it, I swear!" he squeaked as he held his arms defensibly in front of his head; Matthew stopped his approach just before he completely lost his temper and considered what the older officer had said.

Sighing resignedly, he gestured back to the data displaying the key cards number, specifically pointing to list of people that had entered the hospital on the day of the murders and up to three days before.

"There are not a lot of suspects we have here" Matthew mumbled under his breath before explaining. "The only people that had entered this hospital were either doctors, patients being admitted, or visitors that had successfully gained permission to see patients."  
"Why not start with them?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. "I mean, not all of the soldiers and officers outside our medical team and patients have been examined. Well..." Sergeant Towser paused, nervously scratching the back of his head. "That is not to say that we have given all medical personnel an inspection, but-"  
"Then how do I know that you're not the invading human?" Matthew snapped.  
"I could say the same thing for you" Mark muttered, hoping that the younger, burly man hadn't heard what he had just said.  
"You're right!" the Commander declared loudly. "We don't know if we're even human, so we have to watch out for ourselves and make sure that nothing tries to force us to terminate any of our comrades, not even the morons in uniform!"

Triumphant, Matthew heartily slapped the Sergeant on the back before looking over the feeds once more. The list was then compacted into a display of the visiting troops and officers that had entered the hospital and what rooms they requested to enter. Commander Anthrax fingered his sidearm excitedly- once the blood of traitors had been first spilled, there was always the excitement to spill more and more each time.

"I think the records are usually kept by a Doctor Antauri Dixon or something like that." Mark suggested, shrugging his shoulders.  
"Good idea!" Matthew announced, sprinting out of the door and leaving Mark to himself.

Sergeant Mark Towser watched as Commander Anthrax left the room with gusto before sighing in relief and plopping onto the over-stuffed chair wearily.

"I thought he wouldn't leave me alone"

[Page Break]

**19:19**

"What have we got here?" Commander Matthew R. Anthrax demanded, barging into the room and roughly slamming the white-painted steel door shut.  
"Well sir, not much, but we'll be able to track him or her down soon enough" a medic replied nervously, fidgeting in his chair.  
"I want _it_ brought to justice now!" Matthew shouted, slamming his fist down onto a panel and causing several worried looks by the personnel stationed there to be shot in his direction. "Medic, we're fighting a war on two fronts here! Do not just sit here like an invalid and do nothing!" the Commander paused and thought over his words before continuing again, albeit in a softer tone. "Medic, we need every source of information that comes to us. If you are able to retrieve important Intel from the enemy, I suggest you do it quickly- we're not going to last very long here if we don't."  
"Yes, sir, but you see, I'm only a-"

Matthew slammed his hands onto the table, startling the young man into nearly jumping a foot into the air.

"I don't care if you're just a medic! You doctors have access to potential resources we can use to kill off these things, like the night-vision enabled cameras for instance"  
"Look, why don't you idiots at Headquarters just build a device that lets you see if people radiate body heat in comparison to the number of people present in a given area," the medic snapped angrily. "That way, you don't have to waste time looking for a needle in a haystack- you just have to find a body that doesn't have the same body temperature a normal human being has" the medic offered, unamused with the situation. "I mean, it's just that guys in power screw things up so badly, whereas hardworking doctors hardly get any recognition for the services that we are able to actually provide in the world, and yet we hardly have a say in things"  
"That is a brilliant idea!" Matthew bellowed, tuning out the medic's miniature rant after the medic's suggestion.  
"Glad you see things my way" the medic muttered.  
"Medic!" a deep voiced male bellowed, pounding on the metal security door. "Medic! Doctor!"  
"Oh, not again" Matthew grumbled, punching in the twelve-digit door code and letting the biometric scanners on the other side of the door do their work on the person requesting entrance.

The said human that squeezed through the door frame was a morbidly obese man in his thirties, chomping on a sandwich he had taken from a colleague's mini-fridge. Nobody except the record keepers actually knew his real name- when he tried to say it; the sandwiches he was usually eating got in the way and therefore garbled his words. As he was the heavy-weapons expert, he was nicknamed "The Heavy".

"Medic, we have big problem! Big!" Heavy roared in between bites of his food.  
"What is it now?" the medical doctor sighed, taking off his glasses and massaging his temple.  
"Come, come doctor!" the Heavy ordered, grunting in irritation as he had to go through the door frame again.

With that, the heavy set man lumbered down the hallway, shoving the unfortunate people that were in his path to the side.

[Page Break]

**19:25**

The body of Dr. Miller lay on the blue tiled floor, the blood pooling around his form staining his normally white and pristine medical scrub bright red. A butterfly knife embedded in his back was adjacent to the multiple stab wounds over the doctor's body. A soldier decked completely in desert camouflage that had been positioned as a sentry for the body was waving his shovel everywhere, almost conking his fellow coworkers on their heads a few times.

"Boys, we have a traitor" the soldier declared angrily, digging the pointed end of the shovel into the floor.  
"Put that thing away before you hurt somebody" the medic snapped. "You are not helping matters by swinging that thing around and potentially beheading somebody that doesn't need a cranioectomy in this stupid war."  
"This war is not stupid" the soldier declared angrily. "We are fighting this war to protect the lives of the citizens. In fact" the soldier added after a lengthy pause "If there is any chance of victory, then you must fight! Sun-Tsu said that-"  
"Yes, yes" the medic waved impatiently, waving away the soldier's rant with a wave of his hand. "We have heard that story countless times before."  
"It is not a story" the soldier grumbled, stomping out of the room angrily.

The medic sighed and muttered something about too many idiots around the workplace and not enough aspirin under his breath before he snapped on a fresh pair of gloves from the dispenser mounted on the wall. Seeing as the photographer had already taken the necessary pictures, he began the slow process of moving the body to the preservation chamber for later investigation by the Regiment's force. There used to be a saying stating that when the amount of paper work that had to be done almost equaled the physical work of taking care of patients, it would be safe to say that their job was done for the day. Unfortunately, that very saying was very true.

**[Page Break]**

**19:43**

"Ladies and gentlemen" Michelle spoke in between fits of hysterical laughter as the plane weaved through the sky to avoid additional laser damage from the aerial drones patrolling the skies. "This is your flight captain speaking. We have lost power in all engines and we're slowly going to drift towards the ground and probably die. Please remain calm and in your seats. Thank you for flying Jet BLU, where-" the PA eerily cut off suddenly with a loud blast of static.

The survivors looked at each other, shocked, before they began screaming loudly and clawing at the setback pockets, searching for writing tools to scribble their wills and last testaments on. Some of them had even unbuckled themselves and moved wildly about the cabin, struggling to open the emergency exit doors but finding it impossible due to the air pressure outside and due to the fact that the door was actually wider than the frame itself. Babies and young children wailed loudly, squirming in protest as their parents as well as several surrounding survivors tried their best to quiet them by bludgeoning and grabbing at their necks to strangle them. Their nerves were already frayed from the stresses of survival during a post-apocalyptic world, and screaming children never helped matters at all. For months, they had been shot at, stabbed, and sometimes even set on fire, all in the name of suffering now for their survival later.

The plane circled over the base, trailing lines of black smoke and doing its best to stay intact in the middle of a firefight. Weapon-fire that flew dangerously through the air was exchanged on both sides. Technically, while the energy shield that surrounded the base was actually just bursts of concentrated energy fired at specific items that attempted to pass through the protected area, it was the sensors that extended for miles on all sides that warned the base of intruders. The sensors usually took the appearance of an electrical dome that sometimes was faintly visible when certain conditions were met in order to create the appearance that the base was more fortified than it actually was, and that it had enough electrical energy to run the shield twenty-four hours a day.

"I think the landing gear is jammed" Michelle grunted, wrestling with the controls and suddenly banking twenty-five degrees to the right in order to avoid a collision with a distracted fighter.  
"Can't planes land without their landing gears deployed?" John asked, hurriedly punching in commands from his side of the cockpit. "I mean, with a fighter jet, you can belly land them. The A-10 is an example of an aircraft that is made to do that. Belly landing in the water is harder or within the belly of another plane if it has internal weapons storage."  
"You're absolutely right!" Michelle shouted, nearly leaping out of her seat to hug him had her seat belts not restrained her body. "You're a genius!"

With the flipping of a few switches and a cursory glance at the panel that displayed the current altitude, the pilots gently eased the plane towards the Regiment's landing strip, which was harder to do now that the landing gear was disabled and give that without the engines, there really wasn't any other opening to pull up safely in the case of a human judgmental error. Luckily, there was an alternate power unit that allowed the pilots to move the tail's rudders and elevators. What compounded the issue was that though airplanes could drift an average of eleven miles per thousand feet of altitude lost, there wasn't enough time for both of them to troubleshoot the landing gear problem.

"Here it goes!"

The plane flew over the desert wasteland and loomed over the Regiment's runway, blowing sand in all directions as the massive behemoth bore down towards the earth, easily passing through the electrical field with no trouble. Nervously gripping the controls, the pilots quickly made some last minute adjustments to ensure that the nose wouldn't immediately plow into the ground and cause massive collateral damage in terms of both lives and property. With a loud crunch, the plane's belly slammed onto the ground and skidded across the asphalt, sending enormous amounts of sparks flying. The Boeing spun around in circles wildly, causing the workers on the ground to scatter before they were run over by the out of control plane. Metal pieces from the smaller, dislocated parts of the plane such as the flaps covering the landing gear flew off in every direction.

With a loud screech, the plane halted just inches away from the control tower's concrete base, having used almost the entire 12,500 feet of runway to skid to a stop. Almost immediately, fire trucks rushed onto the area to douse the fire from the flaming engines. When they got there, however, they found out that it went out by itself and the firemen had nothing to do but shuffle around, flirt with some of the survivors of the opposite gender, and drink tepid coffee that tasted like ash.

"Well... this went a lot better than I thought" John stated, stretching and cracking his knuckles.  
"Yeah, and it was because of you that we're probably still alive" Michelle agreed, unfastening the restraints and opening the cockpit door. "Once again!" she bellowed at the harassed, departing survivors. "Thank you for flying Jet BLU! We hope to never see you here again!"

[**Page Break]**

**20:21**

"Engineers!" Matthew shouted at the top of his lungs, poking his head through the open basement door to glare at the toiling men below. "I have a big problem!"  
"Hey, buddy," one of the dirt-coated engineers casually said, resting his oil-soaked wrench on an equally oil-covered shoulder.  
"Don't call me buddy" Commander Anthrax growled threateningly.  
"Anyway" the engineer continued. "Just because we're engineers, and that means we solve problems- not problems like "what is the meaning of life", because that's philosophy, we're not at your every beck and call. But..." the engineer added, almost thoughtfully, "Since we solve practical problems, what can we do you for?"  
"I need you to build this" Matthew replied, slamming a ruffled blueprint into his hand. "How fast can you build it?"

Frowning, the engineer gingerly unfolded the paper, letting his eyes skim through the rough sketches of the said invention and the mathematically incorrect solutions. Instead of simply building a scanner that displayed the heat signatures from people in comparison to the next-to-nonexistent heat emissions from polymorphic specters, Commander Anthrax had gotten a step further and demanded ambulatory sentries to guard the hospital.

"We can build it for you in several days" he said, running a gloved hand through his dirtied hair. "We need time to gather the necessary metal, wiring, motors, gears, weapons, and... correct the math destruction you have done" he added with utter disgust evident in his voice.  
"Great!" Matthew exclaimed happily, nearly bursting with excitement to tell the General of the Army the news.

**January 3, 2021  
01:21**

Captain William "Bill" Nenharma pushed open the heavy metal door and climbed through the access port onto the top of the tower. From here he could look out and see the end of the buffer zone, the barren, burned and pockmarked wasteland that surrounded the 45th regiment base, or he could see into the heart of the bleak encampment. Reaching down, he double checked that his radio was on the correct frequency, as missing an early warning alert could result in him being caught with the dual 20mm Gatling guns that made up the tower's armament as they opened up on whatever was deemed the best target, and that would not be good.

A look around the base from the elevated perspective of the 5 story tower failed to show all the tension that was building up amongst the people. Everyone was scared of the specter that was running around the base and it was turning into full out paranoia. Rumors of bots designed to hunt the specter by shooting anything with an abnormally low body temperature wasn't helping matters. First, many correctly feared being shot because they had a winter coat on, since that would indeed help hide their thermal signature. Secondly, many feared that the specter, if caught, would just hack the bots and turn them against the base's populace. This was dubious, as such an attempt would give away the specter, but otherwise not impossible.

The larger danger was paranoia, what Bill decided he would call Salem syndrome from now on. People were on edge, demanding displays of blood at every chance as proof of being human. Two soldiers had been treated for infections of their hands as a result of several wounds sustained not by accident or combat, but by slicing into their palms to prove they were human. A group that was already underfed and under-equipped did not need to waste its dwindling medical supplies on such stupid incidents.

The radio squawked and Bill headed for the hatch, stopping when his knees were level with the tower roof, waiting for an all clear, or a second warning. He could hear the humming of the shield emitters being primed with power, made ready to project small segments of an energy barrier should they be needed. The gun mounts turned, adding a deep vibration to the electrical humming and causing Bill to move farther down the ladder. Only a few seconds later came the all clear, and Bill hauled himself back unto the tower's roof, turning in the direction of the guns and squinting in an effort to see what was coming before reaching down and pulling a set of binoculars out of a pocket.

Heavy combat vehicles, nothing more than military trucks with steel plates and whatever type of guns the soldiers who made them had available really, escorted a convey of four cargo vehicles. With a quick movement of his fingers, Bill zoomed in on the trucks and decided that they were carrying food, water and medicine. H_opefully, that will improve morale._ He thought to himself. With a resigned sigh, he turned back towards the base and nearly jumped off the roof when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

"Hold it right there XANA!" A female in standard army fatigues snapped, holding a sharp, curved blade in position to slash across Bill's chest. "Or Katy will slice you to bits."

Bill held up his hands to defend himself before recognizing the woman holding the blade and relaxing somewhat. "You know I almost jumped off of this tower?" Bill replied seriously as his friend raised the sword she proudly carried.

"What are you doing up here?" She asked again, straining to hold back her laughter at his initial reaction.

"Getting out of the paranoia," Bill answered honestly, "And doing a favor for the tech that was supposed to be inspecting this tower since he's in the hospital. If you need proof that I'm really me..." He held out his hand and Michelle pushed it away.

"If you were a specter, you wouldn't be here staring out into space." She sheathed the blade into its worn scabbard and looked into Bill's brown eyes, frowning as she noticed that there was more to the story than her friend had just told her. "What aren't you saying?"

Bill sighed deeply and turned away from her, eyes focused on an alley outside the tech building. He held out his hands as if inspecting them, looking at the numerous pinpricks from each trip through a security checkpoint. "Guards pricked his finger and didn't get blood." Bill shook his head sadly, "too many attempts to draw blood from the same spot can lead to not being able to draw blood from there."

Michelle listened as her friend continued, but she already had a good idea of what had happened. Bill explained that the tech had offered another spot on his hand, and how the guards had taken him away for a more thorough check. Some of the soldiers hadn't been satisfied with that and beat the tech, ultimately breaking one of his legs before deciding that he was human. The event matched up pretty well with what she had expected and she gave a disgusted shake of her head. "Things are getting bad around here."

Bill huffed, "XANA would be proud, if it felt emotion, of the specter it snuck in here. What the program can't do from outside our walls, it'll convince us to do to ourselves."

Michelle nodded, but found herself without anything to really add. She turned to look at the sprawling air and ground complex, her eyes drawn to where the last of the large airliners from the rescue operation was being cut apart for the components and materials. Nearby were the tanker trucks that the man next to her had helped liberate from XANA while she was flying ungrateful survivors out of the city they had been trapped in. "It's sad to see such a marvel cut apart."

Bill turned to where Michelle was looking, "At least it'll fly again. Parts of it, anyway."

"Yeah." She turned to look over the giant guns that made up the top of the tower, "so what kind of work has to be done on these things?" She really didn't care much about the answer, but hoped that having Bill explain would ease him from the gloom he seemed to be experiencing.

"Check the LN lines and pumps; check the comm lasers, vacuum tunnel seals and pumps. Check the ammunition store and feed mechanism. Look over the fixed function supercomputer core and energy projection hardware."

"Supercomputer core?" Michelle asked, looking down at the tower with a bit of trepidation. She had always thought the towers were big guns without computers.

"Yeah, you need a quantum supercomputer to form energy into solid segments of shield wall, and to monitor the local sensor grid for threats. It's too inefficient to project a shield segment from the central spire to ground level so the towers are responsible for putting out a shield from the ground up to 100 meters or so." Bill continued, "towers are linked to the base by superconducting power cables, cables that need to be submerged in liquid nitrogen to retain that property, which is why the tower has LN pumps."

Without noticing the vacant expression on Michelle's face, or that she was slowly moving towards the hatch, Bill finished up with the final bit of information he had on the subject. "The towers have data links with the central spire and both neighbors through mirror lined vacuum tunnels and lasers. The vacuum gives the fastest possible speed of light while also making the system very tamper resistant. The supercomputer integrated into each tower keeps the others informed of the sensor and shield status as well as the gun status and any targets it has. It can also coordinate the shields of the spire and the neighboring towers as well as report on what types of shield projections are most effective based on feedback from the projection system."

Michelle stopped her retreat, "Very tamper resistant is not tamper proof. Could XANA have hacked one of the towers to let a specter through?"

Bill shook his head, "Not unless he had someone sitting at the tower computer's physical interface and had someone back at HQ holding down the switch to power that interface. The computer is shielded and isolated from external interference and I doubt a specter could overcome the power flow to get data to the computer via the projection. It's a one way system after all."

Michelle looked confused and after a moment voiced her issue. "I may be stupid, but I'm not dumb. You just said that there's a way for the system to record how effective the shield was during an engagement."

"Well yeah," Bill answered without letting Michelle continue her thought, "there's a feedback mechanism that stores the..." He struggled for a moment to find the right words, "the back-pressure, the energy draw of the shield and what the sensors record. How it reacted to what it was hit with, in other words."

"So there is a way to get data back into the computer from the outside." Michelle answered in an irritated voice.

"Well yes, of course. But it's not stored in any memory that the CPU can execute, it's just a data file..."

"What is it? You sound like you just had an idea."

Bill didn't answer, lunging forward and hugging Michelle and pecking her forehead before hurrying to the ladder. "You're a genius!" He called out as he headed down the ladder, leaving the bewildered and only slightly irritated woman behind.

Michelle shrugged and sat down, her legs dangling off the edge of the building as she tried to figure out what had gotten into her friend's head. She could see him running from the tower's base, headed in the direction of the tech building with whatever speed he could muster.

"Everyone, me included, was so stupid." Bill muttered as he approached the tech building and struggled to stop before he crashed into the security checkpoint. His run had alerted the overly jumpy guards and his heaving chest wasn't enough to convince them that he was human as they poked the muzzle of their rifles into the captain's chest. A third guard jammed a tazer into the small of the officer's back and let him have a long jolt, sending Bill to the ground with a choked scream. They let him lay on the ground, recovering from the violent spasms for a moment then sliced a short cut into his arm, watching it bleed for almost 30 seconds before dragging him to his feet, checking and verifying his identity papers, and sending him on his way.

Clutching at the cut on his arm and ignoring the looks of the few people he passed in the halls; Bill headed to his office and used the first aid kit there to bandage his new wound. Then it was to his workstation to check the shield data archives. Any other time he'd have likely made a trip to the CO of the facility to report the guards, but right now it was forgotten in the rush to prove or disprove his theory. Specters needed powerful computer hardware to function and without a XANA operated quantum supercomputer nearby, the invading specter needed to be hosted on the base.

The main research computer was probably not infected, considering that that would be pretty obvious given the memory and CPU time necessary to sustain an AI like a specter coupled with the fact that the system was used for research and development on a daily basis. But the shield control computers were believed to be isolated and thus weren't regularly monitored for system utilization or other signs of infection. So if XANA were to direct a continuous wave energy weapon at the base, the shield system would block it and record the signal characteristics for fine tuning the shield and for later analysis in case someone wanted to duplicate the weapon. But thinking of the laser communications system between the defense towers suggested that directed energy could carry something worse than heat.

It took several hours of searching, a few calls for help and many extra eyes, but now Bill was staring at the monster. A complex program that occupied a few hundred terabytes of space was masquerading as a recording of an energy weapon used in several battles that had occurred near the base. The specter's original coding laid bare for all to see, if one was used to computer code that is. To the engineers that looked over the recording originally, it was just a giant waveform intended to destroy stuff and with a random modulation meant to pierce the shield or at least prevent an efficient counter. But there was a larger question: How did a waveform in data storage become an executable file uploaded to the shield control core?

"That's easy." Jeremie answered, causing Captain Bill to jerk his head up, unaware that he had even spoken. "A glitch probably allowed the information to overflow data memory and get stored in the code space."

Bill frowned, his dark expression one of disappointed surprise. "A buffer overrun allowed in the shield core?"

"Data and program memory aren't on separate hardware in the towers," Jeremie answered. "There was no hardware barrier to prevent it like there is on the central shield computer; there just wasn't enough space to have two super cooled crystal memory arrays in the towers so..."

Bill face palmed, unable to come up with any other means to express the dismay this revelation caused: A cost cutting measure was responsible for all of this."So now how do we fix this? If we take the shields offline, XANA will know because his agent here will fall silent. If we don't, it's likely we won't be able get rid of the infection and therefore the specter."

Jeremie looked down at the ground, lost in thought. "We can't even trace the emitter power usage to determine where the specter is with its code infecting the system."

"Why doesn't it just turn off our defenses and leave us open to a massive attack?" One of the other techs asked, "If XANA got this far, why not just finish us?"

"It can't," Bill answered. "It still needs physical access to the tower computer system to disable the guns and sensors, but the towers have too much EMP shielding for a specter to be coherent inside of. It also can't deactivate or interfere with the sensor mesh because the other towers would signal an alarm when they got conflicting information or if the connections were interrupted."

"And we can manually control the guns and even the shields if it came to that by triggering the explosive disconnects and using the fixed functions without the memory core." Jeremie added, "so if XANA did try to disable our defenses we would have early warning of his attack and a means of countering it even without the computer assisted systems."

"That still leaves us very vulnerable considering the difference in human and machine reaction times. Besides, it could just disable our automated defenses during the attack if that was the plan, even with a back-up plan we'd be terribly vulnerable as people scrambled to implement the back-up plan in the middle of a battle." Bill argued. "So why didn't it?" He mused.

"Who cares? Just blow it up." One of the engineers working on Sergeant Towser's robots answered. "Shoot the shit out of it and no more problems."

"You haven't been on a battle field, have you?"

"No," The engineer answered Bill, "but a big enough bullet kills everything, that's a fact."

"Specters have no real mass, nor a regular body. If you're lucky, an impact will disrupt the projection and freeze it for a moment or two, but otherwise they are bullet proof. And before you ask, I know this because I've tried shooting specters. Tried using C4 on them too but it didn't even slow the thing down."

"The specter can't just disable our defenses; they have too many safeguards in the physical hardware for any sort of software to be able to bring them down." Jeremie answered, hoping to get back onto the main topic.

"So back to wiping the computer and restoring it from a back-up." One of the assembled techs answered.

Jeremie shook his head, "it's not that simple. Doing that would require us to activate all our overrides and the second that happens the specter could destroy the core with a power surge since the safeties that prevent such an event would be disabled."

Bill's mouth simply hung open in shock as he considered how that scenario would play out. "So the specter can't interfere with the defense systems because of the safeties and we can't interfere with the specter because of those same safeties. But it was allowed to invade because we couldn't afford to put all the safeties into the towers!" Bill turned away from the group and walked away with a deep scowl.

* * *

*I know this is obviously not how real pilots talk while in the cockpit but I've never actually heard any dialogue between the pilots and the control tower operators. I didn't find any interest in listening to it during plane flights (but yes, they really do say "Roger", and "All systems go")

See the TF2 references? They're scripted to be only one-shot characters though, and probably won't be mentioned later on [The game Team Fortress 2, as well as all rights and trademarks belong to the Valve Corporation].


End file.
